Water is probably the most necessary substance for humankind. We need it for proper sanitation, cleanliness, and of course drinking. (We can’t have beer without water!) But, water is also very cool. So, here a few experiments you can do at home that show the neat qualities of water.
Pocket Rainstorm
Get out a big glass jar and a small bowl. Fill the bowl with water and heat it in the microwave for about three minutes. It doesn’t have to boil.
You can make your own clouds!
Pour the hot water into the big glass jar and cover it with a dinner plate. Let the plate-covered jar sit there for a minute or two, then dump a tray of ice cubes on the plate. Guess what: it will rain inside the jar!
The ice on the plate will make the plate very cold, which causes the warm air in the jar to condense and form water droplets. This is what the weather person is talking about when he or she describes a “cold front.” When the cold air meets the warmer air, it will rain. Here’s a video to help you with your experiment.
This experiment will make you feel like a real wizard. Speaking of wizards…
The Invisible Giant
This is one of my favorite, simply because it came from my childhood. Who here remembers, Mr. Wizard? He was an older guy who would talk about science and perform household science experiments with kids. He would talk them through the different steps of the experiment. When I was a kid, we did this experiment with an old syrup can.
How cool is that? If you want to watch more Mr. Wizard experiments, there are so many on YouTube. Here’s a list.
Walking Water
What color will the yellow and red mix to become?
This is an experiment that can show how water pressure.
Choose the colors you want to mix. Fill a jar for each color and add food coloring. You will need an additional empty glass of the same size for each pair of colors.
Cut a paper towel in half and then fold it into quarters lengthwise. Stick one end of the paper towel into the colored water and one end into the empty jar.
Thanks to capillary action the water moves or “walks” up the paper towels into the empty jar. The middle jar fills up with water until the water levels of all the jars are equal.
If you start with primary colors, you will also have a nice art lesson, too! For a nice explanation, here’s a video.