Science Experiment

My boys love to watch Beakman's World - a show that teaches kids about science. On this particular episode, they were talking about chemistry and acid and bases. They said that even if kids don't have a chemistry set, there are certain things they can do at home.

One of the examples they gave was in the form of a challenge: How do you get a piece of ice off the table when all you can use is a piece of string? And no, tying the cube with the string was not allowed. The answer was:

Get the end of the string wet, set it on the ice cube, sprinkle salt on it, and then wait about 2 minutes.

Here's what happens:

Here's Gryffin proudly showing off his experiment, which - by the way - he disappeared into the kitchen and did all on his own without letting any of us know, lol!

You can even see Beakman in the background on TV. Yes he is blurry, but it's him, lol!

However, when they tried to replicate the experiment for Phoenix, it didn't work, but I think that was because they didn't have the string wet enough :-)

Here's why that works. The salt lowers the boiling/freezing point, so when you add unfrozen water - via the string - onto an ice cube, and then add salt, it starts to freeze the water, thereby sticking the string to the cube.

Pretty cool! :-)