Rainbow Salt Lab
I'm back! So what do you think I have in store for you today? (Hint: look at title)
You've guessed it! Today we did a rainbow salt lab. This is another kind of experiment involving density. If you don't remember what density is, let me refresh your memory. Density of a substance is its mass per unit volume. In this lab, we will make colors appear in the graduated cylinder, but not mix together. You can also try this at home as well. You need some materials and the chart with the solutions to do this experiment as well. I'll put those on after this introduction. I'll check up on you when you finished reading. Peace!
You've guessed it! Today we did a rainbow salt lab. This is another kind of experiment involving density. If you don't remember what density is, let me refresh your memory. Density of a substance is its mass per unit volume. In this lab, we will make colors appear in the graduated cylinder, but not mix together. You can also try this at home as well. You need some materials and the chart with the solutions to do this experiment as well. I'll put those on after this introduction. I'll check up on you when you finished reading. Peace!
Materials
1. Scale/ Balance
2. 1-100mL Graduated Cylinder
3. 2- 150mL Beakers
4. Pipette/ Dropper
5. Sheet of White Paper
6. Salt
7. Food Coloring (Red, Yellow, Green, Blue)
8. Water
2. 1-100mL Graduated Cylinder
3. 2- 150mL Beakers
4. Pipette/ Dropper
5. Sheet of White Paper
6. Salt
7. Food Coloring (Red, Yellow, Green, Blue)
8. Water
First, prepare each of the solutions in this chart into their own beakers:
Solution Number12345 |
Salt (g)16.0 grams11.7 grams7.2 grams3.4 grams0.0 grams |
Water (mL)60 mL60 mL60 mL60 mL60 mL |
Food Coloring (drops)3- blue2- green2- yellow1- yellow 1-red2- red |
You can use a scale/ balance to get the amount of salt you need for each solution. Make sure that you have the exact amount you need for each solution. You can also get the water and food coloring you need and put in how much you need of that as well. Once you have all the solutions in their own beakers, mix thoroughly until all the salt has dissolved in each one. When all of the salt has dissolved in each beaker, you can finally start mixing them together. Take the blue beaker first, and put 20 mL into the graduated cylinder. We can't fit all the water into the cylinder, so you can dump the rest out.
Now, comes the boring part, you'll need a partner for this one. Good thing my friend Lieu was there to help me. Now, take a pipette and the green solution. Using the pipette, take a small amount of the green solution and slowly drop one drop of the solution down the side of the cylinder. Your partner will need to slowly tip the cylinder for you to be able to do this. Add another 20 mL of the other solution, if you did this successfully tilt it back up slowly, you will see that the solutions do not mix together with each other. If you continue doing that with the other solutions as well, you will have all the colors standing on top of one another. Below and to the left of this text, you can see all the pictures we took when doing this experiment. That is the power of density. ( We were supposed to get it to 100 mL in the graduated cylinder, but we were running out of time. My partner, Lieu thought of winging it, so it looks smaller. We still completed, so who gives a crap?) |
Here are the calculations we made after cleaning up and actually "sitting down" to write down our results. (Know that the results are in the same order as the solutions in the other chart.) :
Mass of Salt16.0 g11.7 g7.2 g3.4 g0.0 g |
Mass Water60.o mL60.0 mL60.0 mL60.0 mL60.0 mL |
Mass of Solution76.0 g71.7 g67.2 g63.4 g60.0 mL |
Volume of Solution60.0 mL60.0 mL60.0 mL60.0 mL60.0 mL |
Density of Solution1.27 g/mL1.195 g/mL1.12 g/mL1.1 g/mL1 g/mL |
Analysis ( since I have no idea how to do this, we will learn how to do this in class) :
Conclusion Questions:
1. If all the solutions were made with just salt and water, why did they form different layers?
> We may have had the same amount of water, however we put in different amount of salt in each solution. When we did that, the amount of density in each solution changed. Since they have different densities, they don't mix together.
2. The ocean contains water with different salinities. Where do you think the saltiest layers would be found? Why?
> Since the amount of salt matters, the saltiest layers would be found at the bottom. They would be found at the bottom because the salt weighs the water (solution) down. If it does that, the water (solution) will sink to the bottom while the water (solution) with the least amount of salt will rise to the top.
3. What happens to density as temperature changes?
> If you remember back to the water density lab from a couple days ago, when the water is hot, the heated water (solution) will rise to the top. When the water is cold, the water (solution) will sink to the bottom.
4. Where in the ocean water column would you expect to find warm, fresh water? Where could you find colder, saltier water? Explain.
> It is the same as I explained in the third question. When the water is hot, the heated water (solution) will rise to the top. When the water is cold, the water (solution) will sink to the bottom. In other words, you will find warm, fresh water on the top and colder, saltier water on the bottom.
1. If all the solutions were made with just salt and water, why did they form different layers?
> We may have had the same amount of water, however we put in different amount of salt in each solution. When we did that, the amount of density in each solution changed. Since they have different densities, they don't mix together.
2. The ocean contains water with different salinities. Where do you think the saltiest layers would be found? Why?
> Since the amount of salt matters, the saltiest layers would be found at the bottom. They would be found at the bottom because the salt weighs the water (solution) down. If it does that, the water (solution) will sink to the bottom while the water (solution) with the least amount of salt will rise to the top.
3. What happens to density as temperature changes?
> If you remember back to the water density lab from a couple days ago, when the water is hot, the heated water (solution) will rise to the top. When the water is cold, the water (solution) will sink to the bottom.
4. Where in the ocean water column would you expect to find warm, fresh water? Where could you find colder, saltier water? Explain.
> It is the same as I explained in the third question. When the water is hot, the heated water (solution) will rise to the top. When the water is cold, the water (solution) will sink to the bottom. In other words, you will find warm, fresh water on the top and colder, saltier water on the bottom.
What's up, world? I see, since you are reading this, it must mean that you are done looking at the stuff above. So, did you like it? Did you find it interesting? I hope you did, now then I have nothing else to do here for now. Thank you for reading my article and I hope to see you reading more. If you want to see my partner's website, (the one who always helps me and is my best friend) feel free to go on her website as well. With that, I am done here. Peace!