A Mom and a Family of Men!

Saturday, October 01, 2011

Acid Testing


We gathered our supplies for testing substances with acid in order to classify rocks.


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Elijah crushed some shells into as fine a powder as he could. He then put some of it in a little dish. He added a few drops of vinegar to see if it fizzes. It did fizz a little.


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He then put some baking soda into one dish and tried the vinegar again. It of course fizzed.


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For the last acid test he used a steel file to scrape some of the limestone off into the bowl. He then put a few drops of vinegar on that. It fizzed a little more than the shells. Since limestone starts out as shells we thought maybe it fizzed better because it was more broken down.


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We learned that if something fizzes it is a carbonate and this will help you to classify rocks in a deeper way than just looking at it.


Eli has always loved rocks and so this was so fun to him. It brought back memories of him as a little boy around 3 and filling his pockets with rocks everywhere we went.

2 comments:

Phyllis said...

Love your science posts!

~Jenn~ said...

Most excellent experiment! I know this is one that the kids love doing!