BOUNCING POLYMER BALL

OBJECTIVES
To determine how high the balls bounce
MATERIALS
 Borax
 Cornstarch
 White glue, blue or clear school glue
 Warm water
 Food coloring (optional)
 Measuring spoons
 Spoons or craft stick for stirring
 Two small cups for mixing
 Marking pen
 Timer
 Seal-able baggie

PROCEDURES

 Label one cup “Borax mix” and the other cup “Ball”.
 Pour two tablespoons of warm water and a half of a tablespoon of borax powder into the cup
labeled “Borax mix”
 Stir the mixture to completely dissolve the borax.
 Add food coloring to color the solution.
 Pour one tablespoon of glue into the cup labeled “Ball”. Add ½ teaspoon of the borax solution
you just made and 1 tablespoon of cornstarch. Do not stir.
 Allow the ingredients to interact on their own for 10-15 seconds and then stir them together
to fully mix. Once the mixture becomes impossible to stir, take it out of the cup and start
molding the ball with your hands.
 The ball will start out sticky, but it will solidify as you knead it more.
 Once the ball becomes less sticky, bounce it!
 You can store your plastic ball in sealed bag when you are finished playing with it.

Once you are finished, make sure that you thoroughly clean your hands of the mixture.

QUESTIONS
 What happens if you make a few differently sized balls?
 Does the size of the ball affect how the balls bounce?
 What happens if you experiment with the ratio of glue, cornstarch and borax? Does more or
less cornstarch affect the way the mixture bends or how it is molded?
 What happens if you add more glue or more borax? What about when you use less?
CONCLUSIONS
I discovered that lots more about bouncy polymer ball, borax and glue. I
also discovered that when I added more glue to the experiment, it made the ball
bounce much more. When I added the increased borax to the experiment it lowered
the bounce of the ball. I also discovered that borax did not really show up very much
in the water I added it to. I suspected that it would have a bigger dent in the
experiment and in the bounce of the balls. I also discovered that all of the balls
highest bounces were on trial 3 and it was very interesting comparing each ball to
one another.
 DISAPPEARING INK

OBJECTIVES

To study the effects of disappearing ink and to know the importance

MATERIALS

 Ethanol
 Thymolphthalein
 Beaker
 Sodium hydroxide solution
 Small paint brush
 White paper

PROCEDURES

 Place 10 cm3 of ethanol in a small beaker.

 Add a few drops of thymolphthalein (Highly flammable) indicator solution.
 Add just enough NaOH solution (irritant), drop wise, to produce a deep blue
colour in the solution.
 Using a small paint brush test the ‘disappearing ink’ on a white page.

QUESTIONS

What makes the ink disappear?

What is the main materials that make it to disappear?

CONCLUSIONS

The colour change occurs because hydroxide reacts with a gas in the air.
 MAKE COLORED FIRE IN EVERY COLOR OF THE RAINBOW

OBJECTIVES
This project will find out what colour of fire does the table salt, driftwood, and
lithium (form batteries) produce when burned.

MATERIALS
 Isopropyl lamp
 Wire gauze
 Tripod
 Table salt
 Small driftwood
 Lithium batteries

PROCEDURES
 Prepare the lamp, tripod and wire gauze, light the lamp.
 Burn the table salt first, observe what happens.
 Try burning the driftwood (make sure it is dry), observe the fire produced.
 Lastly, burn the lithium battery (be careful while observing it burns.)

QUESTIONS
 What colours does the 3 components produce?
 What property of this components make it produce different fire colours?

CONCLUSIONS
Lithium (from batteries) produce red-colored flames. This fire colour is very
bright. Table salt produces yellow flames because of sodium, this colour is natural
colour for most fires. The driftwood produces blue flames, it is because of trace metals
from seawater.
 CHEMICAL REACTIONS WITH BAKING SODA AND VINEGAR

OBJECTIVES
This project will show the chemical reaction when baking soda and vinegar
was mixed.

MATERIALS
 Baking soda
 Vinegar
 A skinny glass
 A plate (to catch spills)

PROCEDURES
 Get your skinny glass and put it on your plate.
 Prepare 1/4 cup of vinegar and set it aside.
 Prepare one heaping tablespoon of baking soda and set it aside.
 Pour your 1/4 cup of vinegar into your glass.
 Then, dump the heaping of tablespoon of baking soda into the glass. You’ll see
a fizzing and bubbling and percolating and growing column of stinky, smelly
soda and vinegar mixture.

QUESTIONS
 What property of this vinegar and baking soda make it produce fizz and bubbles?
 Does the amount of vinegar affect the chemical reaction?
 Does the amount of baking soda affect the chemical reaction?

CONCLUSIONS
This is a chemical reaction, where a combination of two different things
produces a third: The vinegar and baking soda mixture is making carbon dioxide.
This CO2 is the bubbles and fizzing you see.
 THE REDUCTION OF IRON OXIDE BY CARBON

OBJECTIVES

MATERIALS

 Mortar with pestle

 Match
 Sodium carbonate crystals
 Ferric oxide
 Bunsen burner
 Magnet

PROCEDURES

 Char the point of a used match, moisten it with a drop of water and rub on some sodium
carbonate crystals.
 Rub the point in some powdered iron(III) oxide (Fe₂O₃) and heat in a blue Bunsen burner
flame until the point lows strongly.
 Allow to cool.
 Crush the charred head in a mortar and pestle, then run a magnet through the pieces.

QUESTIONS

CONCLUSIONS

Metals high in the reactivity series will reduce the oxides of those lower in the
series. The oxides of metals between zinc and copper in the reactivity series can be
reduced by carbon. In this experiment, sodium carbonate is used to fuse the
reactants in intimate contact.