Crystals come in all different shapes and sizes. However, the purest and cleanest crystals are usually also the ones that grow to be the largest in size. In this science fair project, you will compare the size and shape of crystals grown in three different temperature conditions: room temperature, in the refrigerator, and in an ice bath. With just water and borax, a household cleaning product, you can discover the best recrystallization method for growing large, pure crystals.
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You've probably heard of handprints and fingerprints, but what about sun prints? To make a Sun print, place an interesting object on a special sheet of sun print paper, expose it to the sun for a few minutes, immerse the paper in water, and watch as a permanent image appears! Sun-print paper can be used to make beautiful and eerie prints, using just sunlight and water. Sunlight is actually a mixture of different colors of light. In this chemistry science fair project, you will test which colors of light work best to form sun-print images.
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Picture this situation: Several kids have become sick after eating at the school cafeteria, each complaining about stomachache and nausea. After questioning the sick kids, it becomes clear that they all had one dish in common—the chili. Upon further investigation, it turns out that a bottle containing aspirin in the form of crystals is missing from a chemistry classroom. Did the aspirin somehow end up in the chili? In order to find out, you need to determine if some unlabeled white crystals found in the cafeteria are a normal ingredient (salt, sugar, or cornstarch) or if they are aspirin. In this chemistry science fair project, you will perform a series of tests to identify the unknown substance.
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Do you want your hair to be shiny after you wash it? Do you want your clothes to stay bright and soft after laundering, and last a long time? You might think that a special shampoo or detergent can make this happen, but in this chemistry science fair project, you'll discover that how well people and things get clean has a lot more to do with the type of water used for washing than any special shampoo or soap. Did you know that water can be classified as either soft or hard? Soft water lathers and cleans better than hard water. Using this clue, you'll test different common water types to figure out which type is the softest and which is the hardest.
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Many substances are actually mixtures of different things. For example, milk, which looks like it is one substance, is actually a mixture of many different solids and liquids.
Chromatography is a technique that is used to separate mixtures. In this experiment you will study the substances that make up different inks by using paper chromatography.
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Alka-Seltzer® tablets fizz furiously when dropped into water. The moment the tablet starts dissolving, a chemical reaction occurs that releases carbon dioxide gas. Can you make Alka-Seltzer® fizz faster or slower by changing the temperature of the water? How big of a difference in the rate of a chemical reaction can temperature make?
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Some chemical reactions occur explosively fast, others may occur almost imperceptibly s-l-o-w-l-y. This project explores what effect the particle size of the reactants has on the speed of a chemical reaction: production of carbon dioxide gas by an Alka-Seltzer® tablet.
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You know that water can exist in three separate phases: solid (ice), liquid (water), and vapor (steam). To change from one phase to another, you simply add (or remove) heat. When water boils, what happens to molecules (for example sugar or salt) that are dissolved in the water? Do they boil off too, or do they stay behind?
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This is a simple "kitchen chemistry" project about acid/base chemistry. Scientists measure the acidity or alkalinity of a solution using a logarithmic scale called the pH scale. In this project you'll learn about the pH scale, and you'll make your own pH indicator paper using a pH-sensitive dye that you'll extract from red cabbage. You can use your pH paper to measure the acidity/alkalinity of various household solutions.
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Pennies are bright and shiny when they're new, but become quite dull with time. What causes such a drastic change? Oxygen in the air combines with the copper in the penny to form copper oxide, which makes the penny look dull and dingy. You can make the pennies look like new again by soaking them in an acidic solution, like vinegar. Vinegar dissolves the copper oxide, making the pennies look like new. It turns out, however, that the same process that makes the pennies shiny has bad consequences when it comes to copper pipes: corrosion. In this science fair project, experiment with copper chemistry using an easy test that turns copper-containing solutions a deep blue.
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