Acid Testing

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





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.








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





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.








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.