primary... separation sensation..!
See how colourful chemistry really is and make a liquid sandwich. But you can’t eat it you know…and I wouldn’t try to drink it either!
all you need is
• Tall glass
• Red and blue food colouring
• Vegetable oi• Syrup
• Water
1. Pour a layer of syrup into the bottom of the glass.
2. Slowly pour a layer of water down the inside of the glass so that it settles on top of the syrup. Add a couple of drops of red food colouring to the water.
3. Wait for the layer to settle.
4. Now without disturbing the previous layer, carefully dribble the cooking oil down the inside of the glass as before.
5. Repeat step 2 with another layer of water, but this time add a few drops of blue food colouring.
science
You have a colourful display of different layers of liquids! Like solids, liquids have different densities. One way you can think of density is how heavy something is. The liquids stay separate because liquids with lesser densities float on top of liquids with greater densities, provided they do not mix. Oils and water do not mix and water has a lesser density than oil which is why this experiment works.
When you add the food colouring to the glass, it does not float on top of the water because they mix together. Syrup has a greater density than water so what do you think would happen if you were to add another layer of syrup to the glass? Try it and find out if you were correct.
You could also try experimenting with other liquids such as honey, salt water, olive oil and washing-up liquid. Try guessing which liquids are the heaviest and start with those first. Also try guessing which liquids will mix. Were you correct?
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