March 10, 2011 8:00 p.m.
It is not that often that an experiment turns out so well, but this week Chips was studying ions, ionic compounds, and molecular compounds, and he needed to do an experiment that demonstrated the conductivity of tap water, distilled water(reverse osmosis, in our case), dry salt, dry sugar, salt water, and sugar water. Calvert sixth grade science is definitely middle school level, and it is taught in depth (much moreso than when I was in sixth grade).
Self-Reliant Man helped him set the experiment up, and the results were great. The liquid, in each case, was inserted into the DC series electric circuit using metal “electrodes” of our making (paint can opening pry tools from L*we’s). The experiment showed that the liquid was not conductive in any form except with salt dissolved in it.
With the salt water in the circuit, the light bulb was illuminated and there was actually a sizzling sound with motion in the water. Chips loved it. When we took the experiment apart, we noticed that the electroplated coating on one of our “electrodes” had actually been removed. That was an unexpected effect that made it all that much more interesting.
Pictures, of course!
Here Chips is testing to see whether dry salt crystals were conductive. They weren’t.
Yep. Salt water is definitely conductive! (but sugar water isn’t).
It is actually sizzling, and the light bulb is lighting, too. Great experiment!
I think this was one of the best experiments we have ever done in our homeschool.
1 comments:
Calvert changed their Science program since the last time we did it, 3 years ago, and bigger brother is often joining in the experiments. Glad your boy is having fun in Science! I might just have to comment to Calvert that assigning the rock book in January doesn't work out all that well in much of the country; we hit a "unit project" where we were supposed to go out and collect a bunch of different rocks for analyzing. That proved to be pretty hard with 2 feet of snow on the ground. It would have been fun in April!