Let’s Foam It Up!


Chemical reactions can be fun to watch. It might be just a color change or a powder floating down through a glass of liquid. How would you like to make a really foamy reaction?

You will need:

  • small bowl
  • baking soda
  • vinegar
  • eyedropper or spoon

    • Sprinkle a teaspoon of baking soda in the bowl. Place the bowl in the sink. With the eyedropper or spoon, drop vinegar into the bowl of baking soda. Watch what happens!

    Where Does the Foam Come From?

    The baking soda is what chemists call a base. Vinegar is an acid diluted with water. When the two are mixed together, they react and one of the products is the gas called carbon dioxide. This gas bubbles up and makes the foam.

    What Is the Foam Good For?

    This baking soda-vinegar mixture can be used as a fire extinguisher. The carbon dioxide gas that is formed in the reaction keeps a fire from having oxygen - so it stops burning. The gas smothers the fire. Many home extinguishers work on this principle.

    This mixture is also a good, nontoxic drain cleaner. Sprinkle a couple of teaspoons of soda down a sink drain and carefully pour in about a cup of hot vinegar. The bubbles scrub gunk and grease off of the sides of the pipe and best of all, this drain cleaner will not hurt you or add toxic chemicals to the wastewater coming down your drain.

    Best of all, this foam is just fun to watch!

    If you would like to know more about acids and bases, tune in next time. We'll make an acid-base indicator.

    http://scifun.chem.wisc.edu/scifun.html?

    http://tqd.advanced.org/2690/exper/exper...

    The copyright of the article Let’s Foam It Up! in Kids' Chemistry is owned by Roberta Baxter. Permission to republish Let’s Foam It Up! in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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