GREENSBORO, N.C. — Welcome back to News 2 Science Geeks! It's a new weekly segment that gives you some easy-to-do science experiments during this period of staying at home. Have fun, and let us know if you try this one out.
This week we're going to make a mock volcano at home using just a few simple ingredients.
WHAT YOU'LL NEED
- Baking soda
- Vinegar
- Dish soap
- Red and yellow food coloring (optional)
- Small jar or container, like a spice jar or an old medicine container
- Dirt or sand to build a volcano-like hill
FOLLOW THESE STEPS:
- Build a volcano out of sand or dirt. You could also use Play-Doh. Make a mound like a mountain, and build it around your container that you're going to use later. (This gets messy, so it's best to do the experiment outside.)
- Add about 2 table spoons of baking soda into your small container. (large containers require more)
- Add a small amount of dish soap to the container.
- Add about 5 drops of red food coloring and 5 drops of yellow food coloring.
- Swish this around, or add a little water to allow the solution to combine.
- Put the canister back into the top of your volcano mound.
- Pour vinegar into the container, step back, and watch the eruption! This will last a while. If you want to do it again, you can pour more vinegar in until the baking soda is used up.
WHY DID IT WORK?
How does the "lava" get formed? Well, baking soda and vinegar are two different types of substances. When they meet, a chemical reaction happens, forming something else.
In this case, baking soda is what's called a base and vinegar is an acid. When they meet, a reaction happens that produces carbon dioxide gas, which builds up some pressure in the container and causes it to bubble out at the top.
Hope you enjoyed this week’s experiment!