Density, Tornados & Ivory Soap

It’s nice to start off a science party with a few easy experiment that are low mess and easy to organize and to have the kids participate. Here are three easy experiments for you to try at your Mad Scientist Party.

Density Experiment:

Honey
Corn syrup,
Maple syrup,
Whole milk,
Dish soap,
Water,
Vegetable oil,
Rubbing alcohol
Lamp oil

The easiest way to approach this experiment is to pour equal amount of each liquid into plastic cups ahead of time and set them out on the table. We had several in plastic cups. We left the dish soap in the original container because it was to hard to get out of the plastic cup. Then allow each kid to put a liquid into a clear glass jar. We used an eye dropper at first so you could see the effect well, but it was really time consuming, so we switched to just pouring the liquids in one at a time.

Here you can see several of the layers separating out. It is a fun experiment. You can let the kids shake it up at the end and then come back later to see if the layers separated again or not.

Tornado Experiment

You will need two sturdy large water bottles or pop bottles the 2 liter size and a tornado tube. I bought my tornado connector tube from Amazon.

Fill one bottle about 2/3 of the way with water. Connect the two tubes by attaching the tornado tube to the empty bottle first. Then hold the empty bottle upside down over the one that is full of water and screw them together using the tornado connector tube. Once you are certain that they are screwed on tightly flip the bottles over and begin moving the bottles in a circular motion until you see the tornado begin to form in the top bottle

Then stand back and watch! You can see the tornado form as the water passes from one bottle to the other! You can flip the bottles over and do it again!!

Ivory Soap Experiment

Begin by asking the kids what they think will happen when you place the soap in the water. Then place a bar of dove soap and a bar of Ivory soap in a bowl of water. The Dove soap will sink, the Ivory soap will float.

If anyone is curious about why Ivory soap floats, when the soap is produced it is made whipping air into the soap mixture before it sets; as a result, the soap contains tiny air bubbles which make the soap less dense than water, allowing it to float.