kinetics

By Tom Kuntzleman, Tori Talaski, and Quincy Banini Want a great experiment to have your students perform during the Halloween Season? Try this one that involves an orange to black color change:  

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.

Happy New Year!  Did you know that 2015 is the International Year of Light (IYL)? IYL is a “global initiative adopted by the United Nations to raise awareness of how optical technologies promote sustainable development and provide solutions to worldwide challenges in energy, education, agriculture, communications and health¹”.  IYL is sponsored by several organizations with interests in science and science education, including the European Physical Society, the Institute of Physics, the American Physical Society, and the American Institute of Physics.  You can find several lesson plans, videos and other educational resources on the IYL website². 

In the video below, you can find the solution to the chemical riddle involving the food dye and bleach experiment.  You can also find a description of how to set up and carry out the experiment.  Finally, an extension to the activity is presented.  Thanks to Erica Jacobsen, James