sugar science...activities
Fabulous flowers...Blushing blooms - literally!
red carnations...
Turn boring white carnations into romantic red ones!you will need:
• White carnations, tulips or other white flowers
• Large jug or vase
• Red food colouring
what to do?
01. Fill the jug 2/3 with water
02. Add lots of drops of red food colouring into the water to dye it a deep red
03. Trim the very bottom of the flower stalks to make sure you have a fresh cut and place your white flower into the jug
04. Leave it for three hours and wait and see
variations:
Why not liven up your salad by repeating this experiment with vegetables like celery!
You can experiment with different types of white flowers and different colours. You’ll notice tulips turn relatively quickly! If you put a couple of flowers in a small solid vase to decorate the dinner table, the food dye won’t be visible and it will be a nice surprise to observe the flowers changing colour during the evening.
science:
Plants have a system to transport water and minerals up their stem called the xylem. As the colored water is sucked up through the xylem it turns the flower red.
To keep the water moving upwards in plants water must be continuously evaporated from leaves in the process of transpiration.
cheat at he loves me...he loves me not!
what to do:
The number of petals on a flower varies between plants. If you play he loves me he loves me not with a plant that has an even number of petals you will always end on ‘he loves me not’ but if you choose a flower with an odd number of petals it will always land on ‘he loves me’… So here’s our guide on picking the right flower...
| Number of petals | Flower |
| 3 petals (or 2 sets of 3) | Lily, iris |
| 5 petals | Buttercup, rose |
| 13 petals | Marigold |
| 55 petals | Daisy |
| 89 petals | Daisy |
But watch out for those daisies as some varieties have 34 petals!
science:
You may be surprised to learn that many mathematical concepts are abundant in nature. You might expect symmetry in plants, but if you count the number of petals you will find they follow the Fibonacci series of numbers.
The Fibonacci numbers are 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, ... to work out the next number in the series you simply add the last two numbers together so here the next number will be 21 as 8+13=21. If you look at the numbers in our guide they were 3, 5, 13, 34, 55 and 89- all Fibonacci numbers!
Fibonacci discovered this series of numbers in 1202 when he studied rabbit breeding! He placed a pair of rabbits in a walled enclosure to find out how many offspring the pair will produce in the course of a year if each pair of rabbits gives birth to a new pair each month starting with the second month of its life. Since the first pair has offspring in the first month, double the number and in the second month there are two pairs.
There are exceptions and some flowers will not follow this pattern. Most fall into two categories; a doubling of the number of petals, and/or a version of the Fibonacci Series called the Lucas Series (2, 1, 3, 4, 7, 11, 18, 29, 47, 76, etc.). Mutations and variations from species to species also account for exceptions but when the numbers of petals are averaged, the number will usually be a Fibonacci or Lucas Number.
The numbers and arrangements of leaves, sections and seeds in plants also reflect the Fibonacci series of numbers. For example, if you cut across a banana you will see it is divided into 3 sections.
Further Information Links:
Fibonacci Numbers and the Golden Section
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