Today Ms. Leland decided to show us some chemical reactions.
My favorite experiment was the ethanol experiment. Ms. Leland poured about a tablespoon of ethanol in to a liter bottle. Then she screwed on the cap and shook it around until it coated the inside of the bottle. The bottle was unscrewed, the excess ethanol was dumped, and the bottle set on its side. The lighter was lit and she held it right next to the bottle mouth. Blue flames spread throughout the bottle, but the bottle stayed in the same place. The second time the bottle moved about three inches. The third time we didn't dump the ethanol and the bottle didn't move, but it set the table on fire. Ok, I'm exagerating, but it did dump the extra ethanol on the table when we picked it up, and the ethanol was on fire.
The second experiment was with baking soda and vinegar. We put some baking soda into a flask and then poured some vinegar into it. We put the mouth of the flask next to the two lit candles. It promptly blew the candles out because it was emitting carbon-dioxide.
The last experiment was an experiment with Hydrochloric acid (the stuff in your pool) and zinc. She poured about 3/4 of a cup of hydrochloric acid into a beaker. Ms. Leland showed us the zinc, and then dropped a few in the beaker. The lights were turned off and we saw whitish smoke drifting up. Ms Leland would later explain that it was Hydrogen gas. She lit the gas with a lighter and all the gas in that area burst into flame. It burned down into the beaker and feasted on the gas the combination was emitting. It put itself out when there was no longer enough gas being emitted to sustain the flame. Ms. Leland had to use a pair of tongs to take the beaker out of the room so that we wouldn't become nauseous from the smell/gas. :)
Overall I thought it was a wonderful demonstration. I enjoyed the science behind it and thought it was a lot of fun.
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