Home chemistry experiments. For this entertaining entertainment you will need. Rainbow at home

The Ghostbusters remake is coming out very soon, and it's great occasion rewatch an old movie and study non-Newtonian fluids. One of the heroes of the film, the stupid ghost Lizun, - good image for visualization. This is a character who loves to eat, and he can also penetrate walls.

We will need:

potato,
tonic.

What we do

Cut the potatoes very finely (can be chopped in a food processor) and pour hot water. After 10-15 minutes, drain the water through a sieve into a clean bowl and set aside. A sediment will appear at the bottom - starch. Drain the water; the starch will remain in the bowl. In principle, you will already have a non-Newtonian fluid. You can play with it and watch how it hardens under your hands and becomes liquid on its own. You can also add food coloring for bright color.

Trevor Cox/Flickr.com

Now let's add a little magic.

The starch needs to be dried (leaved for a couple of days). And then add tonic to it and make a kind of dough that is easy to pick up. It will retain its consistency in your palms, but if you stop and stop kneading it, it will begin to spread.

If you turn on the ultraviolet lamp, you and your child will see the dough begin to glow. This is due to the quinine found in tonic water. It looks magical: a glowing substance that behaves as if it violates all the laws of physics.

2. Get superpowers

Comic book heroes are especially popular now, so your child will love feeling like the powerful Magneto, who can control metals.

We will need:

printer toner,
magnet,
vegetable oil.

What we do

From the very beginning, be prepared for the fact that after this experiment you will need a lot of napkins or rags - it will be quite dirty.

Pour about 50 ml of laser printer toner into a small container. Add two tablespoons of vegetable oil and mix very well. Done - you have in your hands a liquid that will react to a magnet.

Jerald San Hose/Flickr.com

You can attach a magnet to the container and watch how the liquid literally sticks to the wall, forming a funny “hedgehog”. It will be even more interesting if you find a board on which you don’t mind pouring a little black mixture, and invite your child to use a magnet to manipulate a drop of toner.

3. Turn milk into a cow

Invite your child to turn liquid into solid without resorting to freezing. This is a very simple and impressive experience, although you will have to wait a couple of days to get the results. But what an effect!

We will need:

cup ,
vinegar.

What we do

Heat a glass of milk in microwave oven or on the stove. We don't boil. Then you need to add a tablespoon of vinegar to it. Now let's start stirring things up. Actively move the spoon in the glass to see white clots appear. This is casein, a protein found in milk.

When there are a lot of clots, drain the mixture through a sieve. Whatever remains in the colander needs to be shaken, then placed on a paper towel and dried a little. Then start kneading the material with your hands. It will look like dough or clay. At this stage you can add food colorings or glitter to make the white mass brighter and more interesting for the baby.

Invite your child to make something from this material - a figurine of an animal (for example, a cow) or some other object. But you can simply put the mass in a plastic form. Leave to dry for a day or two.

When the mass dries, you will have a figurine made of very hard hypoallergenic material. This type of “homemade plastic” was used until the 1930s. Casein was used to make jewelry, accessories, and buttons.

4. Control snakes

Getting vinegar and baking soda to react is just about the most boring experience imaginable. “Volcanoes” and “fizzy drinks” will not be of interest to modern children. But you can invite your child to become a “snake lord” and show how acid and alkali actually react.

We will need:

pack of gummy worms,
soda,
vinegar.

What we do

Take two large transparent glasses. Pour water into one and add soda. Mix. Open the package of gummy worms. It’s better to cut each of them lengthwise and make them thinner. Then the experience will be more spectacular.

Thin worms should be placed in a mixture of water and soda and mixed. Set aside for 5 minutes.

Pour vinegar into another glass. Now we add to this vessel the worms that were in the glass with soda. Because of the soda, bubbles will be visible on their surface. This means there is a reaction. The more worms you add to the glass, the more gas will be released. And after some time, the bubbles will lift the worms to the surface. Add more soda - the reaction will be more active and the worms themselves will begin to crawl out of the glass. Cool!

5. Make a hologram like in Star Wars

Of course, it is difficult to create a real hologram at home. But its likeness is quite real and not even very difficult. You will learn to use the properties of light and turn 2D pictures into three-dimensional images.

We will need:

smartphone,
CD box,
stationery knife,
scotch,
paper,
pencil.

What we do

You need to draw a trapezoid on paper. The drawing can be seen in the photo: the length of the lower side of the trapezoid is 6 cm, the upper side is 1 cm.

BoredPanda.com

Carefully cut out a trapezoid from paper and take out the CD box. We need the transparent part of it. Attach the pattern to the plastic and use a utility knife to cut a trapezoid out of the plastic. Repeat three more times - we will need four identical transparent elements.

Now they need to be glued together with tape so that it looks like a funnel or a truncated pyramid.

Take your smartphone and run one of the such videos. Place the plastic pyramid with the narrow part down in the center of the screen. Inside you will see a “hologram”.

Giphy.com

You can start a video with characters from Star Wars and, for example, recreate the famous recording of Princess Leia or admire his own miniature BB-8.

6. Get away with it

Every child can build a sand castle on the seashore. How about we line it up under water? Along the way, you can learn the concept of “hydrophobic.”

We will need:

colored sand for aquariums (you can also take regular sand, but it needs to be washed and dried),
hydrophobic shoe spray.

What we do

Carefully pour the sand onto a large plate or baking sheet. We apply a hydrophobic spray to it. We do this very carefully: spray, mix, repeat several times. The task is simple - make sure that every grain of sand is enveloped in a protective layer.

University of Exeter/Flickr.com

When the sand dries, collect it in a bottle or bag. Take a large container for water (for example, a wide-mouthed jar or an aquarium). Show your child how hydrophobic sand “works”. If you pour it in a thin stream into water, it will sink to the bottom but remain dry. This is easy to check: let the baby take some sand from the bottom of the container. As soon as the sand rises from the water, it will crumble in the palm of your hand.

7. Keep information secret better than James Bond

Writing secret messages with lemon juice is a thing of the past. There is another way to make invisible ink, which also allows you to learn a little more about the reaction of iodine and starch.

We will need:

paper,
brush.

What we do

First, cook the rice. The porridge can be eaten later, but we need a decoction - it contains a lot of starch. Dip your brush into it and write a secret message on the paper, such as “I know who ate all the cookies yesterday.” Wait for the paper to dry. Starchy letters will be invisible. To decipher the message, you need to moisten another brush or cotton swab in a solution of iodine and water and run it over what is written. Due to the chemical reaction, blue letters will begin to appear on the paper. Voila!

Chemist is a very interesting and multifaceted profession, uniting under its wing many different specialists: chemical scientists, chemical technologists, analytical chemists, petrochemists, chemistry teachers, pharmacists and many others. We decided to celebrate the upcoming Chemist’s Day 2017 with them, so we selected several interesting and impressive experiments in the field under consideration, which even those who are as far from the profession of a chemist as possible can repeat. The best chemical experiments at home - read, watch and remember!

When is Chemist's Day celebrated?

Before we begin to consider our chemical experiments, let us clarify that traditionally Chemist’s Day is celebrated in the countries of the post-Soviet space at the very end of spring, namely on the last Sunday of May. This means that the date is not fixed: for example, in 2017 Chemist’s Day is celebrated on May 28. And if you work in the chemical industry, or are studying a specialty in this area, or are otherwise directly related to chemistry on duty, then you have every right to join the celebration on this day.

Chemical experiments at home

Now let's get down to the main thing and begin to perform interesting chemical experiments: it is best to do this together with young children, who will definitely perceive what is happening as a magic trick. Moreover, we tried to select such chemical experiments, reagents for which can be easily obtained at a pharmacy or store.

Experiment No. 1 - Chemical traffic light

Let's start with a very simple and beautiful experiment, which received this name for good reason, because the liquid participating in the experiment will change its color exactly to the colors of the traffic light - red, yellow and green.

You will need:

indigo carmine;
glucose;
caustic soda;
water;
2 transparent glass containers.

Don't let the names of some ingredients scare you - you can easily buy glucose tablets at a pharmacy, indigo carmine is sold in stores as a food coloring, and you can find caustic soda in a hardware store. It is better to take tall containers, with a wide base and a narrower neck, for example, flasks, to make them easier to shake.

But what is interesting about chemical experiments is that there is an explanation for everything:

By mixing glucose with caustic soda, i.e. sodium hydroxide, we obtained an alkaline solution of glucose. Then, by mixing it with a solution of indigo carmine, we oxidize the liquid with oxygen, which it was saturated with during pouring from the flask - this is the reason for the appearance of the green color. Next, glucose begins to work as a reducing agent, gradually changing color to yellow. But by shaking the flask, we saturate the liquid with oxygen again, allowing the chemical reaction to go through this circle again.

You will get an idea of how interesting it looks in real life from this short video:

Experiment No. 2 - Universal acidity indicator from cabbage

Children love interesting chemical experiments with colorful liquids, it’s no secret. But we, as adults, responsibly declare that such chemical experiments look very spectacular and interesting. Therefore, we advise you to conduct another “color” experiment at home - a demonstration amazing properties red cabbage. It, like many other vegetables and fruits, contains anthocyanins - natural indicator dyes that change color depending on the pH level - i.e. degree of acidity of the environment. This property of cabbage will be useful to us in order to obtain further multi-colored solutions.

What we need:

1/4 red cabbage;
lemon juice;
baking soda solution;
vinegar;
sugar solution;
Sprite type drink;
disinfectant;
bleach;
water;
8 flasks or glasses.

Many of the substances on this list are quite dangerous, so be careful when performing simple chemical experiments at home, wear gloves and, if possible, safety glasses. And don’t let children get too close - they may knock over the reagents or the final contents of the colored cones and even want to try them, which should not be allowed.

Let's get started:

How do these chemical experiments explain the color changes?

The fact is that light falls on all objects that we see - and it contains all the colors of the rainbow. Moreover, each color in the spectrum has its own wavelength, and the molecules different shapes, in turn, reflect and absorb these waves. The wave that is reflected from the molecule is the one that we see, and this determines what color we perceive - because other waves are simply absorbed. And depending on what substance we add to the indicator, it begins to reflect only rays of a certain color. Nothing complicated!

For a slightly different version of this chemical experiment, with fewer reagents, see the video:

Experiment No. 3 - Dancing jelly worms

We continue to do chemical experiments at home - and we will conduct the third experiment on everyone’s favorite jelly candies in the form of worms. Even adults will find it funny, and children will be absolutely delighted.

Take the following ingredients:

a handful of gummy worms;
vinegar essence;
ordinary water;
baking soda;
glasses - 2 pcs.

When choosing suitable candies, choose smooth, chewy worms without sugar coating. To make them less heavy and easier to move, cut each candy lengthwise into two halves. So, let's begin some interesting chemical experiments:

Make a solution in one glass warm water and 3 tablespoons of soda.
Place the worms there and keep them there for about fifteen minutes.
Fill another deep glass with essence. Now you can slowly drop the jellies into the vinegar, watching how they begin to move up and down, which is in some way similar to a dance:

Why is this happening?

It's simple: baking soda, in which the worms are soaked for a quarter of an hour, is sodium bicarbonate, and the essence is an 80% solution of acetic acid. When they react, water, carbon dioxide in the form of small bubbles and sodium salt of acetic acid are formed. It is carbon dioxide in the form of bubbles that the worm becomes overgrown with, rises up, and then descends when they burst. But the process still continues, causing the candy to rise on the resulting bubbles and fall until it is completely completed.

And if you are seriously interested in chemistry, and want Chemist’s Day to become your professional holiday in the future, then you will probably be interested in watching next video, which tells in detail about the typical everyday life of chemistry students and their exciting educational and scientific activities:

Take it for yourself and tell your friends!

Safety precautions when conducting experiments

To ensure that educational experiments are not overshadowed by troubles and injuries, it is enough to remember a few simple but important rules.

Safety comes first

Before you start working with chemicals, the work surface must be protected by covering it with film or paper. This will save parents from unnecessary cleaning and allow them to save appearance and functionality of furniture.
During work, you do not need to get too close to the reagents, bending over them. Especially if your plans include chemical experiments for young children that involve unsafe substances. The measure will protect the mucous membranes of the mouth and eyes from irritation and burns.
If possible, you should use protective equipment: gloves, glasses. They must be suitable in size for the child and not interfere with him during the experiment.

Simple experiments for little ones

Developmental experiences and experiments for very young children (or for children under 10 years old) are usually simple and do not require parents to have any special skills or rare or expensive equipment. But the joy of discovery and miracle, which is so easy to do with your own hands, will remain with him for a long time.

For example, children will be indescribably delighted by a real seven-color rainbow, which they can create themselves with the help of an ordinary mirror, a container of water and a sheet of white paper.

Rainbow in a Bottle Experience

To begin with, place a mirror at the bottom of a small basin or bathtub. Then, it is filled with water; and the light of the lantern is directed onto the mirror. After the light is reflected and passes through the water, it is decomposed into its component colors, becoming the same rainbow that can be seen on a sheet of white paper.

Another very simple and beautiful experiment can be carried out using ordinary water, wire and salt.

To begin the experiment, you need to prepare a supersaturated salt solution. Calculate the desired concentration substances is quite simple: when required quantity salt in water, it stops dissolving when the next portion is added. It is very good to use warm distilled water for this purpose. To make the experiment more successful, the finished solution can also be poured into another container - this will remove dirt and make it cleaner.

Experience "Salt on a Wire"

When everything is ready, a small piece of copper wire with a loop at the end is lowered into the solution. The container itself is removed to a warm place and left there for a certain time. As the solution begins to cool, the solubility of the salt will decrease and it will begin to settle on the wire in the form of beautiful crystals. You will be able to notice the first results within a few days. By the way, you can use not only ordinary, straight wire in the experiment: by twisting fancy figures from it, you can grow crystals of your own. different sizes and shapes. By the way, this experiment will give your child a great idea. New Year's toys in the form of real ice snowflakes - you just need to find a flexible wire and form a beautiful symmetrical snowflake out of it.

Invisible ink can also make a lasting impression on a child. It’s very simple to prepare them: just take a cup of water, matches, cotton wool, half a lemon. And a sheet on which you can write text.

Invisible ink can be purchased ready-made

First, you need to mix an equal amount in a cup lemon juice and water. Then, a little cotton wool is wrapped around a toothpick or a thin match. The resulting “pencil” is dipped into the mixture in the resulting liquid; Then they can write any text on a piece of paper.

Even though the words on paper will be completely invisible at first, it will be very easy to manifest them. To do this, a sheet of already dried ink needs to be brought to the lamp. The written words will immediately appear on a heated sheet of paper.

Which child doesn't love balloons?

It turns out that even inflating an ordinary balloon can be very in an original way. To do this, dissolve one spoon of baking soda in a bottle of water. And in another cup, mix the juice of one lemon and three tablespoons of vinegar. Afterwards, the contents of the cup are introduced into the bottle (for convenience, you can use a small funnel). The ball must be placed on the neck of the bottle as quickly as possible until the chemical reaction is completed. During this time, carbon dioxide will be able to quickly inflate the balloon under pressure. To prevent the ball from jumping off the neck of the bottle, it can be secured with electrical tape or tape.

"Inflate the balloon" experiment

Looks very interesting and unusual colored milk, the colors of which will move, intricately mixing with each other. For this experiment you need to pour some whole milk and add a few drops of food coloring to it. Individual areas of the liquid will become colored different colors, but the spots will remain motionless. How to set them in motion? Very simple. It is enough to take a small cotton swab and, after dipping it in detergent, bring it to the surface of the colored milk. By reacting with molecules milk fat, the molecules in the detergent will make it move.

Experience “Drawings on milk”

Important! Not suitable for this experiment skimmed milk. Only whole ones can be used!

Surely all children have had the opportunity to observe funny air bubbles in a mineral or sweet water. But are they strong enough to lift a grain of corn or raisin to the surface? It turns out yes! To check this, just pour any sparkling water into a bottle, and then throw some corn or raisins into it. The child will see for himself how easily, under the influence of air bubbles, both corn and raisins will begin to rise up, and then, having reached the surface of the liquid, fall down again.

Experiments for older children

Older children (from 10 years old) can be offered more complex chemical experiments that require more components. These experiments are a little more difficult for older children, but children can already take part in them.

To comply with safety precautions, children under 10 years of age should conduct experiments under the strict supervision of adults, mainly as a spectator. Children over 10 years old can take a more active part in the experiments.

An example of such an experiment would be the creation of a lava lamp. Surely many children dream of such a miracle. But it’s much more pleasant to make it yourself, using simple components that are probably found in every home.

Lava Lamp Experience

The basis of the lava lamp will be a small jar or an ordinary glass. In addition, for the experiment you will need vegetable oil, water, salt and a little food coloring.

The jar or other container used as the base of the lamp is filled two-thirds with water and one-third with oil. Since oil is much lighter in weight than water, it will remain on its surface without mixing with it. Then, a little food coloring is added to the jar - this will give the lava lamp color and make the experiment more beautiful and spectacular. And after that, add a teaspoon of salt to the resulting mixture. For what? Salt causes the oil to sink to the bottom in the form of bubbles, and then, dissolving, pushes them up.

The following chemical experiment will help make a school subject like geography exciting and interesting.

Making a volcano with your own hands

After all, studying volcanoes is much more interesting when there is not just a dry book text nearby, but a whole model! Especially if you can easily do it at home with your own hands, using available means at hand: sand, food coloring, soda, vinegar and a bottle are perfect.

To begin with, a bottle is placed on a tray - it will become the basis of the future volcano. Around it you need to mold a small cone of sand, clay or plasticine - this way the mountain will take on a more complete and believable appearance. Now you need to cause a volcanic eruption: a little warm water is poured into the bottle, then a little soda and food coloring (red or orange color). The finishing touch will be a quarter glass of vinegar. Having reacted with soda, the vinegar will begin to actively push the contents of the bottle out. This explains the interesting effect of the eruption, which can be observed with the child.

A volcano can be made from toothpaste

Can paper burn without being burned?

It turns out yes. And an experiment with fireproof money will easily prove this. For this ten ruble banknote immersed in a 50% alcohol solution (water is mixed with alcohol in a 1 to 1 ratio, a pinch of salt is added to it). After the bill is properly soaked, excess liquid is removed from it, and the bill itself is set on fire. Once it flares up, it will begin to burn, but will not burn out at all. This experience is quite simple to explain. The temperature at which alcohol burns is not high enough to evaporate the water. Thanks to this, even after the substance burns out completely, the money will remain slightly damp, but absolutely intact.

Experiments with ice are always a success

Young nature lovers can be encouraged to germinate seeds at home without using soil. How it's done?

IN eggshells put a little cotton wool; it is actively moistened with water, and then some seeds (for example, alfalfa) are placed in it. In just a few days you will be able to notice the first shoots. Thus, soil is not always needed for seed germination - only water is enough.

And the next experiment, which is easy to do at home for children, will certainly appeal to girls. After all, who doesn’t like flowers?

A painted flower can be given to your mother

Especially the most unusual, bright colors! Thanks to simple experience right in front of the amazed children, simple and familiar flowers can turn into the most unexpected color. Moreover, this is extremely simple to do: just put the cut flower in water with food coloring added to it. Climbing the stem to the petals, chemical dyes They will be painted in the colors you want. To better absorb water, it is better to make a cut diagonally - this way it will have the maximum area. In order for the color to appear brighter, it is advisable to use light or white flowers. An even more interesting and fantastic effect will be obtained if, before starting the experiment, the stem is split into several parts and each of them is immersed in its own glass of colored water.

The petals will turn into all colors at once in the most unexpected and bizarre way. That we will undoubtedly make a lasting impression on the child!

Experience "Colored foam"

Everyone knows that under the influence of gravity, water can only flow downwards. But is it possible to make it rise up the napkin? To conduct this experiment, an ordinary glass is filled about a third with water. The napkin is folded several times to form a narrow rectangle. After this, the napkin unfolds again; Having stepped back a little from the bottom edge, you need to draw a line of colored dots of a sufficiently large diameter on it. The napkin is immersed in water so that about one and a half centimeters of its colored part is in it. Having come into contact with the napkin, the water will begin to gradually rise upward, coloring it with multi-colored stripes. This unusual effect occurs due to the fact that, having a porous structure, the fibers of the napkin easily allow water to pass upward.

Experiment with water and napkin

To carry out the following experiment, you will need a small blotter, cookie cutters of different shapes, some gelatin, a transparent bag, a glass and water.

Gelatin water does not mix

Gelatin dissolves in a quarter glass of water; it should swell and increase in volume. Then, the substance is dissolved in a water bath and brought to approximately 50 degrees. The resulting liquid should be distributed in a thin layer over a plastic bag. Using gelatin cookie cutters, cut out figures various shapes. After this, you need to lay them on a blotter or napkin, and then breathe on them. Warm breath will cause the gelatin to increase in volume, causing the figures to begin to bend on one side.

Experiments conducted at home with children are very easy to diversify.

Gelatin figures from molds

In winter, you can try to slightly modify the experiment by taking the gelatin figures out onto the balcony or leaving them in freezer. When the gelatin hardens under the influence of cold, patterns of ice crystals will clearly appear on it.

Conclusion

Description of other experiments

Delight and a sea of positive emotions are what experimenting with adults will bring to curious children. And parents will allow themselves to share the joy of their first discoveries with young researchers. After all, no matter how old a person is, the opportunity to return to childhood at least for a short time is truly priceless.

Household chemist-scientists believe that the most useful property detergents - this is the content of surfactants (surfactants). Surfactants significantly reduce the electrostatic voltage between particles of substances and break down conglomerates. This property makes clothes easier to clean. In this article, chemical reactions that you can repeat with household chemicals, because with the help of surfactants you can not only remove dirt, but also carry out spectacular experiences.

Experience one: foam volcano in a jar

Carry out this interesting experiment at home it is very simple. For it you will need:

hydroperite, or (the higher the concentration of the solution, the more intense the reaction will be and the more spectacular the eruption of the “volcano”; therefore, it is better to buy tablets at the pharmacy and immediately before use, dilute them in a small volume in a ratio of 1/1 (you will get a 50% solution - this is an excellent concentration);

gel dishwashing detergent (prepare approximately 50 ml of aqueous solution);

dye.

Now we need to obtain an effective catalyst - ammonia. Carefully add ammonia liquid drop by drop until completely dissolved.

Copper sulfate crystals

Consider the formula:

CuSO₄ + 6NH₃ + 2H₂O = (OH)₂ (copper ammonia) + (NH₄)₂SO₄

Peroxide decomposition reaction:

2H₂O₂ → 2H₂O + O₂

We make a volcano: mix ammonia with a washing solution in a jar or wide-necked flask. Then quickly pour in the hydroperite solution. The “eruption” can be very strong - to be on the safe side, it is better to place some kind of container under the volcano flask.

Experiment two: reaction of acid and sodium salts

Perhaps this is the most common compound that is found in every home - baking soda. It reacts with acid, and the result is new salt, water and carbon dioxide. The latter can be detected by hissing and bubbles at the site of the reaction.

Experiment three: “floating” soap bubbles

It's a very simple experience with baking soda. You will need:

aquarium with a wide bottom;
baking soda (150-200 grams);
(6-9% solution);
soap bubbles (to make your own, mix water, dish soap and glycerin);

Spread baking soda evenly along the bottom of the aquarium and pour it in. acetic acid. The result is carbon dioxide. It is heavier than air and therefore settles at the bottom of the glass box. To determine whether there is CO₂ there, lower a lit match to the bottom - it will instantly go out in carbon dioxide.

NaHCO₃ + CH₃COOH → CH₃COONa + H₂O + CO₂

Now you need to blow bubbles into the container. They will slowly move along a horizontal line (the boundary between carbon dioxide and air, invisible to the eye, as if floating in an aquarium).

Experiment four: reaction of soda and acid 2.0

For the experience you will need:

different types of non-hygroscopic food products(for example, chewing marmalade).
a glass of diluted baking soda (one tablespoon);
a glass with a solution of acetic or any other available acid (malic,).

Cut pieces of marmalade with a sharp knife into strips 1-3 cm long and place for processing in a glass with soda solution. Wait 10 minutes and then transfer the pieces to another glass (with an acid solution).

The ribbons will become overgrown with bubbles of carbon dioxide formed and float to the top. The bubbles on the surface will evaporate, the lifting force of the gas will disappear, and the marmalade ribbons will sink and again become overgrown with bubbles, and so on until the reagents in the container run out.

Experience five: properties of alkali and litmus paper

Most detergents contain caustic soda, the most common alkali. Its presence in a detergent solution can be detected in this elementary experiment. At home, a young enthusiast can easily carry it out on his own:

take a strip of litmus paper;
dissolve a little liquid soap in water;
dip litmus in soapy liquid;
wait for the indicator to color Blue colour, which will indicate an alkaline reaction of the solution.

Click to find out what other experiments to determine the acidity of the medium can be carried out using available substances.

Experience six: colored explosions in milk

The experience is based on the properties of interaction between fats and surfactants. Fat molecules have a special, dual structure: hydrophilic (interacting, dissociating with water) and hydrophobic (water-insoluble “tail” of a polyatomic compound) end of the molecule.

Pour milk into a wide container of shallow depth (“canvas” on which a color explosion will be visible). Milk is a suspension, a suspension of fat molecules in water.
Using a pipette, add a few drops of water-soluble liquid dye to the milk container. Can be added to different places containers different dyes and make a multicolor explosion.
Then you need to moisten a cotton swab in liquid detergent and touch the surface of the milk. The white “canvas” of milk turns into a moving palette with colors that move in the liquid like spirals and twist into bizarre curves.

This phenomenon is based on the ability of a surfactant to fragment (divide into sections) a film of fat molecules on the surface of a liquid. Fat molecules, repelled by their hydrophobic “tails,” migrate in the milk suspension, and with them the partially undissolved paint.

Paper, scissors, heat source.

This experiment always surprises kids, but to make it more interesting for two-year-olds, combine it with creativity. Cut out a spiral from paper, color it together with your child so that it looks like a snake, and then start “revitalizing” it. This is done very simply: place a heat source below, for example, a burning candle, electric stove(or hob), iron with the sole upside down, incandescent lamp, heated dry frying pan. Place a coiled snake on a string or wire above the heat source. After a few seconds, it will “come to life”: it will begin to rotate under the influence of warm air.

For children 3 years old:rain in a jar

Three-liter jar, hot water, plate, ice.

Using this experience, it is easy to explain to a three-year-old “scientist” the simplest phenomena of nature. Fill the jar about 1/3 full hot water, better hot. Place a plate of ice on the neck of the jar. And then - everything is as in nature - the water evaporates, rises upward in the form of steam, at the top the water cools and a cloud forms, from which real rain comes. IN three-liter jar It will rain for one and a half to two minutes.

For children 4 years old:balls and rings

Alcohol, water, vegetable oil, syringe.

Four-year-old children are already wondering how everything works in nature. Show them a beautiful and exciting experiment about weightlessness. On preparatory stage mix alcohol with water, you should not involve your child in this, just explain that this liquid is similar in weight to oil. After all, it is the oil that will be poured into the prepared mixture. You can take any vegetable oil, but pour it very carefully from a syringe. As a result, the oil appears to be in weightlessness and takes its natural shape - the shape of a ball. The child will be surprised to observe a round transparent ball in the water. With a four-year-old child, you can already talk about the force of gravity, which causes liquids to spill and spread, and about weightlessness, because all liquids in space look like balls. As a bonus, show your child one more trick: if you insert a rod into the ball and rotate it quickly, an oil ring will separate from the ball.

For children 5 years old:invisible ink

Milk or lemon juice, brush or feather, hot iron.

At five years old, the child probably already owns a brush. Even if he doesn't know how to write yet, he can draw a secret letter. Then the message will also be encrypted. Modern children did not read the story about Lenin and the inkwell with milk in school, but observing the properties of milk and lemon juice will be no less interesting for them than for their parents in childhood. The experience is very simple. Dip the brush into milk or lemon juice (or better yet, use both liquids, then the quality of the “ink” can be compared) and write something on a piece of paper. Then dry the writing until the paper looks clean and heat the sheet. The most convenient way to develop recordings is with an iron. Onion or apple juice is suitable as ink.

For children 6 years old:rainbow in a glass

Sugar, food coloring, several clear glasses.

The experiment may seem too simple for a six-year-old, but in fact it is worth the painstaking work for a patient “scientist.” The good thing about it is that the young scientist can do most of the manipulations himself. Three tablespoons of water and dyes are poured into four glasses: in different glasses- different colors. Then add a spoonful of sugar to the first glass, two spoons to the second, three to the third, and four to the fourth. The fifth glass remains empty. 3 tablespoons of water are poured into glasses placed in order and mixed thoroughly. Then a few drops of one paint are added to each glass and mixed. The fifth glass contains pure water without sugar or dye. Carefully pour along the blade of a knife into a glass with clean water the contents of “colored” glasses as the “sweetness” increases, that is, scientifically, the saturation of the solution. And if you did everything correctly, then the glass will contain a small sweet rainbow. If you want to talk science, tell your child about the difference in the density of liquids, due to which the layers do not mix.

For children 7 years old:egg in a bottle

Chicken egg, bottle pomegranate juice, hot water or paper with matches.

The experiment is practically safe and very simple, but quite effective. The child will be able to carry out most of it himself; the adult only needs to help with hot water or fire.

The first step is to boil the egg and peel it. And then there are two options. The first is to pour hot water into a bottle, put an egg on top, then put the bottle in cold water(into ice) or just wait until the water cools down. The second way is to throw burning paper into the bottle and put an egg on top. The result will not be long in coming: as soon as the air or water inside the bottle cools, it will begin to shrink, and before the novice “physicist” has time to blink, the egg will be inside the bottle.

Be careful and do not trust your child to pour hot water or work with fire himself.

For children 8 years old:"Pharaoh's Snake"

Calcium gluconate, dry fuel, matches or lighter.

There are many ways to get “pharaoh snakes”. We will tell you about one that an eight-year-old child can do. The smallest and safest, but quite spectacular “snakes” are obtained from ordinary calcium gluconate tablets; they are sold in pharmacies. To make them turn into snakes, set the pills on fire. The easiest and safest way to do this is to put a few cups of calcium gluconate on a “dry fuel” tablet, which is sold in tourist stores. When burning, the tablets will begin to expand sharply and move like living reptiles due to the release of carbon dioxide, so from a scientific point of view, the experiment can be explained quite simply.

By the way, if “snakes” made from gluconate do not seem very scary to you, try making them from sugar and soda. In this version, a pile of sifted river sand is soaked in alcohol, and sugar and soda are placed in a recess on its top, then the sand is set on fire.

It would not be amiss to remind you that all manipulations with fire are carried out away from flammable objects, strictly under the supervision of an adult and very carefully.

For children 9 years old:non-Newtonian fluid

Starch, water.

This is an amazing experiment, which is easy to do, especially if the scientist is already 9. The research is serious. The goal is to obtain and study a non-Newtonian fluid. This is a substance that, when exposed to a soft influence, behaves like a liquid, and when exposed to a strong influence, exhibits the properties of a solid. In nature, quicksand behaves in a similar way. At home - a mixture of water and starch. In a bowl, combine water with corn or potato starch in a ratio of 1:2 and mix well. You will see how the mixture resists when stirred quickly, and stirs when stirred gently. Throw a ball into a bowl with the mixture, lower the toy into it, and then try to pull it out sharply, take the mixture in your hands and let it calmly flow back into the bowl. You yourself can come up with many games with this amazing composition. And this is an excellent opportunity to work out with your child how molecules in different substances are connected to each other.

For children 10 years old:water desalination

Salt, water, plastic film, glass, pebbles, basin.

This study is best suited for those who love travel and adventure books and films. After all, while traveling, a situation may occur when the hero finds himself on the open sea without drinking water. If the traveler is already 10 and learns how to do this trick, he will not be lost. To experiment, first prepare salt water, that is, simply pour water into a deep basin and salt it “by eye” (the salt should completely dissolve). Now place a glass in our “sea”, so that the edges of the glass are slightly above the surface salt water, but were lower than the edges of the basin, and put a clean pebble or glass ball into the glass, which will prevent the glass from floating. Cover the basin with cling film or greenhouse film and tie its edges around the basin. It should not be pulled too tightly so that it is possible to make a depression (this depression is also fixed with a stone or a glass ball). It should be just above the glass. Now all that remains is to place the basin in the sun. The water will evaporate, settle on the film and flow down the slope into the glass - this will be an ordinary drinking water, all the salt will remain in the basin. The beauty of this experience is that the child can do it completely independently.

For children 11 years old:litmus cabbage

Red cabbage, filter paper, vinegar, lemon, soda, Coca-Cola, ammonia etc.

Here the child will have the opportunity to get acquainted with real chemical terms. Any parent remembers such a thing as litmus paper from chemistry course, and will be able to explain that this is an indicator - a substance that reacts differently to the level of acidity in other substances. A child can easily make such indicator papers at home and, of course, test them by checking the acidity in various household liquids.

The easiest way to make an indicator is from regular red cabbage. Grate the cabbage and squeeze out the juice, then soak filter paper with it (available at a pharmacy or wine shop). The cabbage indicator is ready. Now cut the pieces of paper smaller and place them in different liquids that you can find at home. All that remains is to remember which color corresponds to which acidity level. In an acidic environment the paper will turn red, in a neutral environment it will turn green, and in an alkaline environment it will turn blue or purple. As a bonus, try cooking “alien” scrambled eggs by adding to egg white red cabbage juice. At the same time, you will find out what level of acidity is in a chicken egg.