Exo Space Blog
Work, projects, and basically anything else I do in class
(Not just about space)
Lab 1: Soap, Surface, Tension, and other Sciencey Stuff
For this experiment I used a Styrofoam plate, water, dish soap, and a Q-tip. I cut the shape of the boat like the directions said, but I decided to make the opening at the bottom in the shape of a square. I then filled a small tub with water and placed the ‘boat’ on top. Finally I dipped the Q-tip in the dish soap and placed it on the water where the boat’s opening was. Automatically the boat glided away from the Q-tip which I thought was pretty cool. For the second part of the lab I used a plate, milk, food coloring, dish soap, and again a Q-tip. I poured the milk on the plate just to cover the bottom like the instructions said. I then added drops of food coloring to the center of the plate. Then just like before I dipped the q-tip in the dish soap and then dipped it in the middle of the plate. Like magic the colors started to move to the outside of the plate and this also looked cool. After finishing both of these labs I had a few questions about how this could happen. 1.) Why does the dish soap make the boat and the food coloring move, 2. Can you draw something out using the milk and food coloring method, and 3. How did someone discover this. For the first one I thought it might have something to do with the fact that dish soap had a greater density than milk and water, so it acted like water and oil would react. After researching it I found out that dish soap is a surfactant – that means that it breaks down the surface tension of water. As the surface tension is broken up, it creates enough of a force to push the lightweight boat across the surface. This also goes for the milk and the food coloring. For my next question I tried to do a drawing on my own but with my artistic skills, it was not working out. I then tried to find people who have actually done this, but most were just creating cool patterns with no real thought in it. So I moved on to my next question. I could not find a good article that explained it all, but I did find small notes that someone knew what soap was made out of, and so therefore tested its reaction with other components. After completing this lab, I think it could be classified as entertaining and educational at the same time. It has cool outcomes, but still having logic behind it. I really like doing this experiment because I had never done it before and the result was really cool to me. I think I would definitely do more experiments like this in the future, even if it is just for my enjoyment. Overall, this was a fun lab and the result was worth it. Lab 2: Super States of Matter- Supercooled Water This next lab was pretty cool. I used just one item which was a water bottle. I placed the water bottle (unopened) in the freezer for about an hour. Then I took it out and it still looked unfrozen to me. I then hit the top of the water bottle and like magic the water turned to ice from the top to the bottom. Then to make sure it was frozen I opened up the water bottle, and there was only a bit of water unfrozen, the rest was just ice. This surprised me because when I first took it out it looked like it was just liquid, and in a matter of seconds it froze. The main question I had was how did this happen, and also why this only worked on purified water. After doing some research I found out that this occurs when carbon dioxide lowers the freezing point of water. Because of this the freezer doesn’t the water until the impact of the hit causes enough force to return to the original freezing point. I think this only happens to purified water because it might have a different freezing point than let's say tap water. This experiment was pretty simple to do which was a bit boring waiting for the bottle to freeze, but the result paid off a bit. It was cool to see the water turn to ice, but it was all pretty short. If I were to do the lab again I would try to do it with other drinks and see if it can work with those. Overall this was an okay lab that makes you interested in the different forms of matter. Reflection Questions How do you get to the point where you need additional opportunities to get work done?
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Jennifer R.Grade: 10th Archives
November 2015
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