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Science Rocks!


Color Splash

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Sent in by:
Sara of NB

Make beautiful colored designs!
Materials

Materials Needed


  • 3 clear plastic cups
  • water
  • cooking oil
  • liquid food coloring
  • pencil

Instructions

Instructions


  1. Check with a grown-up before you begin.
  2. Fill one cup about 2/3 full of water and another about 2/3 full of oil.
  3. Add a few drops of food coloring to each cup. Leave space between the drops so they don't touch. What happens?
  4. Now fill the third cup about 2/3 full of water. Pour in enough cooking oil so it forms a thin layer on top of the water.
  5. What do you think will happen if you add food coloring to this last cup? Make a prediction and then test it out.
  6. Touch one of the drops of food coloring in the last cup with the tip of a pencil. What happens?
  7. Here's why this works. When you add food coloring to water, it mixes in. When you add food coloring to oil, it stays in a little ball and does not mix in. Why? Food coloring is mostly made of water, and water and oil don't mix. Even if you stir them, the oil separates and forms a layer on top of the water. So when you add food coloring to the cup that has water and oil, each drop is coated with oil. That is why the drops sit in the oil layer. The oil is like a raft that helps the food coloring float. If you poke a drop with a pencil, the oil layer is broken. Then the food coloring mixes with the water and makes a cool design.


Now it's time for you to experiment. What happens if you use vinegar instead of food coloring? What happens if you use a different kind of cooking oil? Choose one thing to change (that's the variable), and predict what you think will happen. Then test it and send us your results.

Some of your Results

Haylee, age 13 of Palestine, TX wrote:
it worked! it was so awesome!!! pretty colors!

Connor, age 9 of Knoxville, TN wrote:
We followed the instructions and then added a drop of dish soap. The dish soap broke up the oil layer and then the food coloring drops to the bottom quicker. We also tried foam dish soap and food coloring sat on the foam bubbles.

Teona, age 9 of Temple Hills, MD wrote:
when I finshed the project it was colorful.

Monica, age 10 of Lompoc, CA wrote:
i did not put the right amount of oil in the water... but other than that it was cool.

Angela, age 12 of Hayward, CA wrote:
it was cool. I did it in the 4th grade with a friend and now I'm doing it again in 6th grade because its cool.

Angela, age 13 of Brooklyn, NY wrote:
It was so cool!! I had fun doing it.

Bob, age 14 of Bowling Green, KY wrote:
it was cool! the colors were preety.

Kris, age 12 of Kimberly, ID wrote:
My little sister and I loved watching the colors! We put in blue and yellow food coloring, so when the colors mixed, we got an awesome green!

Ciara, age 12 of Yankton, SD wrote:
it made all different colers. the oil sank into the bowl. and the one with the water all mixed and made a red brown color.

Durga, age 11 of Hamden, CT wrote:
when I did the experiment Color Splash it was a blast. I had so much fun now I am going to tri another experiment and I hpoe it will be as fun as this one was.

Sharon, age 16 of Floral Park, NY wrote:
color splash was pretty awesome, but I used orange food coloring powder, so I couldnt conclude anything srry, but I know its a kool experiment.

Kiarah, age 9 of Saipan wrote:
I saw these amazing colorful colors! It was really fun for me.. And, When I took it to the science fair @ school the the project Color Splash made me win!

Haley, age 9 of Denver, CO wrote:
i was amsing it worked good

Tabitha, age 12 of Chicago, IL wrote:
i saw pretty colors that I created

Dri, age 11 of Guam wrote:
the colors sank

Gertrued wrote:
it made colors. when I shock it it made brown. i was not happy when it turned brown.

Michael, age 11 of Jacksonville, FL wrote:
the oil sinked

Carol of Mt. Horeb, WI wrote:
the food coloring mixed with the water and just made beads in the oil. When we mixed water and oil together the food coloring mixed when we stirred it. It looked kid of pretty

Taylor, age 12 of Mount Horeb, WI wrote:
the food mixed with water and just made beads in oil. when we mixed water and oil it looked like the ocean because it was blue

Diana, age 12 of Sugarland, TX wrote:
It was so cool!!! It makes a cool present! I tried making a lava lamp out of it using laces and fancy glitter and it worked! Try making it into a lava lamp and give it to your science teacher. Its two in one: art and science??.

Charla, age 11 of Canton, OH wrote:
when I did color splash for a science grade at my school it made the colors that were so post to happen and I got an A on my project.

Leanna, age 15 of Chicago, IL wrote:
the thing was so pretty in cool

Ronzay, age 10 of Franklin, LA wrote:
We did a color splash in my 4th grade class.

Emma, age 9 of Omaha, NE wrote:
I have done it in challenge at school. Since I'm one of the smarter kids it was awesome!

Jordan, age 9 of Mirimichi, NB wrote:
when I did I put my hands in it and I could moled it but when I let go it was lickwid

Janiya, Jaylah, Dinasia of NJ wrote:
This was a fun experiment. We got three cups. One cup was filled with water. The second cup was filled with water and oil. The third cup was empty. We then poured blue food coloring in the first cup and red food coloring in the second cup. Then we wrote down what happened. Before we did the last cup we filled it with water and oil and predicted what we thought was going to happen. After we predicted it, we tried it out and we all got the anwser right but wrote it in different ways. At the end of it, it was all cool and we had a great time and experiment!!! Hopefully we win first or second place!!!

Kelley, age 12 of Dallas, GA wrote:
i did at school in Science but instead we had these bottles that looke like test tubes(they were 2-liter bottles before they were made), then we put 3/4 vegetable oil, then added a little bit of water. After that we added a drop of food coloring. then we put a quart of an Alcaseltzer in to the tube. It started to bubble like crazy!!! we turned it upside down and it became one big bubble... it looked exzacly like a lava lamp!!! it was really cool!!!

Maya, age 10 of Waco, TX wrote:
When I tried it it didn't do notin really I tried it like 3 times and it still didn't work!!

Jeff, age 12 of CT wrote:
it changed colors and it was totally awsome

Andre wrote:
when I was.. doing my EXPERIMENT I was so, so, so, SO really bubbly inside!!! it came out REALLY coooooool

Daisy, age 12 of Brooklyn wrote:
This Project is so cool!!! I filled in the frst cup with water only and I put all the different colors (food Coloring). And They All mixed in together. The second cup I only put oil with the colors and they turned into little bubbles. Then the Third cup I filled it inn w/water and oil the oil float up then, I put the colors and they turned into bubbles like the Second cup then I put the unsharped pencil and all the bubblesmix just like the frist 1. the oil I use was Mazola u can get in the supermarket just like the food coloring.


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