What you will learn from the dancing spaghetti in the water? Alpha science classroom teaches you to make magic spaghetti with this fun kids’ science experiment! While this activity is a real dance party in a glass, by observing the results of combining baking soda and vinegar children will gain a unique perspective on chemical reactions.
Alpha science classroom: For this activity, you will need to gather the following materials
- A pack of uncooked spaghetti noodles,
- 1 cup of water,
- Two teaspoons of baking soda,
- 5 teaspoons of vinegar,
- A tall clear glass,
- Art paper and crayons
- Pigments
Alpha science classroom: The steps of making dancing spaghetti:
Step 1: Children need to pour a cup of water and two teaspoons of baking soda into a tall clear glass. Stir the mixture together until the baking soda dissolves completely into the water.
Step 2: Add 3–6 drops of food coloring to the water and vinegar mixture.
Step 3: Children need to break pieces of uncooked spaghetti into 1-inch long pieces. Then, place about 6 pieces into the glass of water and dissolved baking soda. The pieces will sink to the bottom.
Step 4: Children need to add vinegar to the solution in the glass. Observe as the pieces of spaghetti at the bottom of the glass begin to pop up and dance around!
Step 5: As the spaghetti dance begins to slow down, children can add a little more vinegar to the solution to keep the dance party going!
Alpha science classroom: The scientific principles of dancing spaghetti
Now let Alpha tell children the secrets. The noodles will bob up and down for a few minutes. This noodle “dance” is eye-catching. Since the surface of the noodles is rough, tiny bubbles of carbon dioxide gas are attracted to it. These bubbles increase the volume of the noodle substantially but contribute very little to its mass. As a result, the overall density of the noodle is lowered, causing it to be carried upward by the more dense fluid surrounding it.
Archimedes’ Principle states that the buoyant force exerted on a fluid is equal to the weight of the fluid displaced. Since the noodles now have a greater volume, they displace more water, causing the fluid to exert a greater buoyant force. The buoyant force of the surrounding fluid is what pushes the noodles to the top.
Once the noodles reach the top, the bubbles will pop out upon exposure to the air. This makes the noodles denser, causing them to sink. As more bubbles adhere to the noodles, the density of the noodles decreases and they rise to the surface again. It is obvious that an increase in volume (as long as the mass increase is negligible) will result in a decrease in density. The bubbles that attach themselves to the noodles are just like little life jackets that make the noodles more buoyant by increasing their volume.
Kids, do you understand the mystery of this kid’s science experiment?
Today, the magic science ball of Alpha Science Classroom comes to an end. Through the special kid’s science experiment activity of dancing spaghetti, children will have a preliminary understanding of the carbonation reaction. Alpha Science Toys hopes to use simple kids science experiment phenomena to train children’s ability to explore and learn and learn more interesting scientific phenomena.
Alpha Science Toys also has many kitchen science experiment toy sets, kids can choose their favorite toy sets to explore more interesting science experiments and grow up to be the best science wizard!
