You will need:
- Honey
- Milk
- Dish-washing liquid soap
- Food colour (optional)
- Vegetable oil
- Rubbing alcohol or
surgical spirit - Lamp oil
- Water
- A tall transparent
glass or cylinder
Create your very own colourful column of
liquids while learning about the density of
various liquids through this fun and easy project.
INSTRUCTIONS
l. Take the narrowest and tallest transparent
glass that you have.
- For the density column, start with the liquid
which is heaviest in density. In this case,
that liquid is honey. - Be careful to pour the honey very
slowly in the centre of the glass with a
dropper so that the liquid may not stick
to the sides. - Gradually, keep pouring liquids into the glass
in diminishing order of their densities. - After golden syrup comes milk, then dish-washing liquid soap, followed by water. Add a few drops of food colour to the water beforehand so as to make it more attractive.
- Be extremely careful while pouring the next few liquids, viz. vegetable oil, followed by rubbing alcohol and lamp oil.
- Make sure there is enough oil before you pour the alcohol, else it will break into the next layer.
RESULT
Each liquid will hold its place in the column, because of the varying density of each liquid, thus creating ‘layers’ in the liquid. Some liquids, like oil and water, repel each other; thus they do not mix. Other liquids like milk and soap liquid resist mixing because they are thick or dense in comparison to the others.
