A classic, easy chemical reaction with baking soda and vinegar

Description:

What is a chemical reaction? Experiment with baking soda and vinegar

Equipment needed:

Baking soda

Vinegar

A skinny glass

A plate (to catch spills)

The Digital Bits Science Lab Experiment:

There’s nothing like a classic. And an experiment with baking soda and vinegar is about as classic as you can get.

Get your skinny glass and put it on your plate.

Prepare 1/4 cup of vinegar and set it aside.

Prepare one heaping tablespoon of baking soda and set it aside.

Pour your 1/4 cup of vinegar into your glass.

Then, dump the heaping of tablespoon of baking soda into the glass. You’ll see a fizzing and bubbling and percolating and growing column of stinky, smelly soda and vinegar mixture:

This is a chemical reaction, where a combination of two different things produces a third: The vinegar and baking soda mixture is making carbon dioxide. This CO2 is the bubbles and fizzing you see.

Younger children will love this one because it’s always fun to play with things that fizz and bubble and move on their own. Older children will be able to learn a simple way to make a chemical reaction. They can experiment with the ingredients and presentation: What if you add more baking soda? Or use more vinegar? The glass we use is skinny and thin to better show off the growing, bubbling effect - how much vinegar and soda would we need to overflow the glass?

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