first-year undergraduate

The “Elephant Toothpaste” experiment is a very popular, albeit messy chemistry demonstration. To carry out this experiment, place a 250 mL graduated cylinder on something that you wouldn’t mind getting messy.

By Tom Kuntzleman, Tori Talaski and Charles Schaerer   There is a new experiment circulating the web.  Check it out:  

A fun experiment to conduct when discussing phase diagrams is the melting of solid carbon dioxide (dry ice).  To perform this experiment, place small pieces of dry ice (carbon dioxide) in a plastic pipette, seal with a pair of pliers, and position the bulb of the sealed pipette in a beaker of water.  Then sit back and watch what happens! 

Last year I came across a link on Twitter regarding an art installation by Roger Hiorns in England titled “Seizure.” Some of you may have seen it too – a condemned flat in London was essentially sealed off and filled with more than 75,000 L of supersaturated copper sulfate solution.

Did any of you guess what was going on in Chemical Mystery #4:  The Case of the Misbehaving Balloon?  In this experiment, several balloons were placed in liquid nitrogen.  Most of these balloons shrunk tremendously – to almost zero volume – when cooled

Conducting experiments with liquid nitrogen experiments is a sure-fire way to energize many chemistry lessons. Unfortunately, getting access to liquid nitrogen can be a bit difficult. I happen to purchase liquid nitrogen from Airgas; you might be able to find a branch near you here.