“I’ve got a good idea in my head!” said Iris during breakfast.
“Okay…”
“You could do a science experiment.”
“Like what?”
“You could put some apple cider in water and see what happens.”
I got a bowl of water and poured in a few drops of apple cider. Not much happened. “It’s not fizzy,” Iris noted.
“I can make it fizzy,” I said. I added some vinegar and baking soda. That did the trick.
“You should do one more experiment while I finish my cereal,” said Iris. “How about baking soda and hot sauce?” I put a teaspoon of baking soda in another bowl and plopped in a few drops of Frank’s RedHot. It turned into a disgusting, fizzy mass. Iris leaned over and smelled it. “Aggggh!” she said, recoiling.
I sniffed. The capsaicin had volatilized and was going straight up my nose. “You’re right, agggh,” I said.
“We are real scientists,” said Iris.
Might I suggest another experiment for you “real scientists?”
Mentos and Coke . . .
This sounds like an Irving and Muktuk book. And when did she learn what a science experiment is, anyway? Next thing you know, she’ll be hypothesizing.
That is awesome, since of course there is vinegar in the hot sauce.
Funny, I thought the mentos and coke link above would direct you to this
Hee hee hee!
Bummer, my comment didn’t include the underscore. If you type “menthos coke” into the search field on youtube, you’ll get a fabulous demonstration of the chemical reaction.
I tried to replicate your experiment and did not get the same results. (Pretty good fizzing, but no smell.) I guess I’m not a Real Scientist.
Sorry to spam your comment page, Matthew, but I realized that a general search on youtube for coke and menthos brings up a few less than charming videos. Here’s a link to the one I’m partial to:
Ha, great minds. I was going to suggest that you teach her to hypothesize if she wants to be a real scientist.
A really fun experiment of this sort involves throwing various powdered kitchen products into a fire to see what they do — different things make different levels of sparkage. Powdered whipped cream mix makes the biggest splash that I know of, but various sugars and spices produce varying effects. You know, if you want to teach your daughter to play with fire.
There’s such a thing as powdered whip cream mix?
Dream Whip®
http://www.kraftfoods.com/kf/Products/ProductInfoDisplay.htm?SiteId=1&Product=4300025953
Yep, that’s the one. We used to use the generic version as part of our ice cream recipe at summer camp.
also fun? mixing cornstarch and water together (in pretty equal amounts, though i just add and add until, you know, it works)…
when you get the proportions right, you can poke it slowly and your finger goes right into it, like a liquid. BUT if you poke it really hard, your finger bounces off the top, like a solid! science is awesome!
(i had a babysitter that would make this for us…that was her hook. they also did it on mythbusters, as their final “how would ninjas run across water?” test.)
Because they’re ninjas, that’s how.
We call this Oobleck, as in the Dr. Seuss book. Iris loves it. Thanks for the reminder, though–we haven’t done it in a while.
I have a protocol for extracting DNA from kiwis or strawberries using everyday household items, if you want to do that. It assumes straight alcohol is an everyday household item but it works great.
In addition to not showing Iris how to throw powders into fires, I assume you’re also not reproducing the “does it blend” videos from the Good Food podcast?
I know how to extract DNA (thanks for the reminder) but did you know that kiwis grow in Seattle? Our friend Sara gave us three kiwis that she grew in her backyard and they were tasty.
I have TONS more if you want! We harvested 5 grocery bags and a box full. We don’t know what to do with that many.
Sure! Maybe I’ll make kiwi granita or something.