CHEMICAL MIXING:AN EXPLORATION OF KITCHEN CHEMISTRY

By: Hannah Jean Ward

SCIENTIFIC QUESTION:

My question was:“What happens when kitchen chemicals get mixed together?”(My dad helped me pick out the chemicals.)

My hypothesis was:“It will cause a chemical reaction.”“It will bubble and explode!”“The chemicals will mix and form something new.”“Different things will happen if you mix different chemicals.”

WHAT IS A KITCHEN CHEMICAL? Hannah: “Chemicals can be many different things. Little kids should not mix things without a grown up.”

What kitchen chemicals did we look at? We used:

• Water

• Olive oil

• Red wine vinegar

• Sea salt

• Baking soda

WHAT DID WE DO?

What should we mix them in? How should we mix them? How much stuff should we mix up?• A glass – so we can use a small amount, so we can observe it because it’s clear• We should use a spoon. Mix them for 10s. • A couple spoonfuls will do.

What should we observe?What are they like before they are mixed – how they feel, their color, whether they are liquid or solid, if and how they smell.

Does anything happen when we mix them?

What does the mixed-up stuff look like?

HOW DID THESE KITCHEN CHEMICALS START OUT?

Chemical Solid or Liquid

Feel Smell Color Other observations

Water Liquid Smooth, slippery Like nothing Clear Some tiny air bubbles

Red Wine Vinegar

Liquid Very wet, smooth and slippery

Sour Red

Olive oil Liquid Smooth, slippery, and greasy

Like something, kinda like olives

Yellow-ish green

Thicker than other liquids

Sea Salt Solid Chunky, hard, not sticky

Like nothing White Little bit clear

Baking Soda Solid Soft, chunky Like nothing White

SO WHAT HAPPENED?Mixture Observations during mixing Observations of final mixture

Water and vinegar Nothing really Smells like vinegar, still clear, mixed well, pink-ish in color, no changes

Water and oil Nothing really Smells like the oil, oil stayed on top, greenish on top, didn’t mix well

Water and baking soda

Turned white Still some stuck to spoon, more dough-like, baking soda on the bottom, mostly stayed separate

Water and salt Nothing Don’t mix well, salt turned clear

Vinegar and baking soda

“A chemical reaction!”, turned brown and white, it bubbled and fizzed. “Almost fizzed all over the place!”

Brown, some slimy paste at bottom, bubbles mostly gone

Vinegar and oil Nothing really. Tasted it and felt sick, really harsh. Didn’t mix well. Smells like vinegar.

Vinegar and salt Nothing really. The salt stayed on the bottom.

Red, but the salt stayed white. Smells like vinegar

Oil and salt Nothing really. Yellow with a bunch of crystals. Didn’t mix very well.

Oil and baking soda Became pasty. Yellowish-white, can’t see through it anymore. Smells like oil. Still a liquid.

Salt and baking soda Nothing really. It camouflaged the salt in the baking soda, can’t see it anymore. Smooth with hard bumps…salt.

SOME OF THE MORE INTERESTING MIXTURES:

Baking soda and red wine vinegar Olive oil and red wine vinegar

Olive oil and baking soda

Different things

happen!

WHAT DID WE LEARN?

1. That baking soda and vinegar cause a chemical reaction! It bubbled but did not explode. (whew!)

2. Some things mixed well, but some things did not. In some cases the mix ended up different than the starting stuff.

3. You need to be careful when you mix things because you never know what’s going to happen.

The End!