Monday, January 30, 2012

Changing colors

Red cabbage juice is pretty cool. It changes color based on the pH of its environment. We got some dehydrated red cabbage juice powder in a science kit and decided to try it out. We mixed some of the powder and water in two cups, making some nice purple mixtures. We took our favorite acid and base (vinegar and baking soda, respectively) and added the baking soda to one cup and the vinegar to the other, getting bright blue and red mixtures (shown in the picture). Jr. scientist E was not impressed by the color changes, but Jr. scientist A really got into it. He immediately came up with a list of items to add to the mixture. We added baking soda to the vinegar mix, turning it back to purple (after the bubbles subsided). At Jr. scientist A's insistence, we added lemon juice, orange juice, flour, coffee, nuts, and various other things we had on hand - not a pretty mixture in the end but quite a crowd-pleaser!

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