Seven Layer Density - Cool Science Experiment

About Steve Spangler Science...




Additional Information:

On the education side, Spangler started his career as a science teacher in the Cherry Creek School district for 12 years. Today, Steve travels extensively training teachers in ways to make learning more engaging and fun. His hands-on science boot camps and summer institutes for teachers inspire and teach teachers how to prepare a new generation for an ever-changing work force. Over the last 15 years, he has also made more than 500 television appearances as an authority on hands-on science and inquiry-based learning.




His recent appearances on the Ellen DeGeneres Show have taught viewers how to blow up their food, shock their friends, create mountains of foam, play on a bed of nails, vanish in a cloud of smoke and how to turn 2,500 boxes of cornstarch and a garden hose into a swimming pool of fun.

[truecloud]

I had to watch this video for our science density assignment today, and this looks super cool

[alizadarmawie]

i made a science wxperiment like this. but with all water

[TheAetherX]

I haven't watched this yet.

Have I?

I don't know.

I can't remember when I started watching these.

[TheCuriousSeb]

This is a perfect illustration of buoyancy!

[DANGJOS]

its not another reason they don't mix, it is the reason they don't mix. There is a mistake in the description. Different densities don't determine whether of not things mix, what you just described determines that. Alcohol and water have an even larger difference in their densities than oil and water and yet they mix just fine

[marvinkitfox]

You would need one really strong freezer to freeze that.
Water = 0 celcius (32 F)
Lamp oil = -30 celcius (-22F)
Rubbing alcohol = -89C (-128F)

[LankaDutch]

Instead of that instrument he's using (tur(n)key baster? I'm Dutch, so don't know this thing) to suck up the fluids and then gently putting it in the big glass you can use a sheet of paper and turn (fold) it into a 'beak' to pour out into the big glass whatever fluid you want to use

[blitzwaffe]

There is also another reason why the substances do not mix. Some of the substances are polar and some are not. Water is polar and oil is not polar for example. Only substances that are polar mix with polar substances and same goes for nonpolar substances.

[RvBVakama]

You Forgort "That Is phenomenal"

[Brbolj]

@JackRabbit894 Actually it probably wouldn't, at least not completely. Mixing or dissolution in this case, is not related to density. By shaking you would get all the fluids in contact and some of them would dissolve in others. For example honey, syrup, alcohol, and a dish soap to a certain extent, are all soluble in water, so they would partially mix.

[LydiaLiduLidissa]

one more video and i'll sleep i promise.

[DANGJOS]

Steve unless your using something other than isopropyl alcohol, rubbing alcohol's density is not .87 g/cm3 its actually less than .8 g/cm3

[marvinkitfox]

The polar liquids(water, alcohol, soap) would mix, and the non-polar (the oils) would mix.
The organic complex liquids(honey, syrup) would mix with both, to a lesser extent.
End result: Muddy soapy syrupy water on bottom, muddy oily stuff on top, some sludge at the bottom and scum on the top.
I.E. Quite a mess.

[mervonium]

I think they would all mix. Soap has a hydrophobic end (the polar carboxylate ion) which is water soluble.

[Krowphay]

@shajidh2o It would eventually reset itself back to the way it was before you shook it. If the layers are each less dense than the layer below them, they shouldn't mix.

[ZerpDerpling]

Oils in the top of water so it's lighter. Facepalm

[taetheknee]

wouldn't the food colouring make the oil or whatever substances more dense than it originally is?

[abbeyschoen]

my 3rd grade teacher loves science and he did this with us and we called it the liquid birreto

[Djinnhydra]

It will pour into the other layers and make a gross looking brownish green color, and you would have to wait for it to seperate again before you could add anything else.

[ShortiieRaiinbow]

We tried that in my science class and It all mixed. But a few weeks after we saw it and the water and oil separated again.