You will need

• A clean, 1-liter clear soda bottle or a plain straight transparent glass

• 3/4 cup of water
• Vegetable Oil or Baby oil
• Fizzing tablets or Aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid)
DENSITY
• Food coloring  the degree of compactness of a substance.
 a measurement that compares the amount of
matter an object has to its volume. An object with
What to do much matter in a certain volume has high density
1. Pour the water into the bottle.
2. Use a measuring cup or funnel to slowly pour the vegetable oil into the bottle until it’s almost full. You may have to wait a
few minutes for the oil and water separate.
Explanation. Oil molecules are attracted to other oil molecules so they stick together. The same goes
for water molecules so they just don't mix – they are immiscible. Secondly, the oil always floats on top of the water because
the oil has a lower density than water.
3. Add 10 drops of food coloring to the bottle (we like red, but any color will look great.) The drops will pass through the oil
and then mix with the water below.
Explanation. The molecules of water can't mix with the molecules of oil. Even if you try to shake up a bottle of half-
oil and half-water, the oil just breaks up into smaller droplets, but it doesn't truly mix with the water. Also, food coloring only
mixes with water. It does not color the oil at all.
4. Break a seltzer tablet in half and drop the half tablet into the bottle. Watch it sink to the bottom and let the blobby
greatness begin!
Explanation. When you pour the water into the bottle with the oil, the water sinks to the bottom and the oil floats
to the top. ... Water is denser than the oil. The Aspirin tablet reacts with the water to make carbon dioxide gas. These
bubbles attach themselves to the colored water and cause them to float
to the surface. ASPIRIN is used to reduce fever and relieve mild to
moderate pain from conditions such as muscle
5. To keep the effect going, just add another tablet piece. For a true aches, toothaches, common cold, and headaches.
lava lamp effect, shine a flashlight through the bottom of the bottle. It may also be used to reduce pain and swelling in
conditions such as arthritis. C9H8O4

How does it work?

To begin, the oil stays above the water because the oil is lighter than the water or, more specifically, less dense
than water. The oil and water do not mix because of something called “intermolecular polarity.” Molecular polarity basically
means that water molecules are attracted to other water molecules. They get along fine and can loosely bond together
(drops.) This is similar to magnets that are attracted to each other. Oil molecules are attracted to other oil molecules, they
get along fine as well. But the structures of the two molecules do not allow them to bond together. Of course, there’s a lot
fancier scientific language to describe density and molecular polarity, but maybe now you’ll at least look at that example in a
whole new way.
A solution of oil and water is a great example of a heterogeneous mixture. Most of the oils and water are
immiscible - that means they don't mix. Therefore, forming layers between them. A homogeneous mixture is a mixture of
two substances that is completely even throughout the solution and there are no borders in between substances. It looks like
one new substance. In this experiment, different solutions are made by mixing water with different colors and amounts
of food coloring. Students should notice that once the water and colors are mixed together, the liquid looks the same
throughout. It is a solution—a homogeneous mixture.
When you added the tablet piece, it sank to the bottom and started dissolving and creating a gas. As the gas
bubbles rose, they took some of the colored water with them. When the blob of water reached the top, the gas escaped
and down went the water. Cool, huh?