Why is Chemistry Ace ?

I remember as a young lad at the age of 9 pestering my parents for a Chemistry set before Christmas and then disappearing for the whole morning of December 25^th seeing what I could make change colour or smell (or worse).  On starting secondary school, a couple of years later, under the instruction of a wildly enthusiastic giant of a teacher, my passion for Chemistry was fuelled even further. Even though an unfortunate accident regarding homemade fireworks, which resulted in total hair loss for a few weeks, meant that I had to attend school wearing a Scunthorpe United bobble hat, my curiosity for Science didn’t go away and I spent many an evening in the library researching things that I could do at home.

It dawned on me that maybe some of you would also be interested in some of the things that can be done at home (safely), so I thought that I would put together a few Chemistry experiments for you.

1. Borax Crystals                                                                                                             

This is an easy task for young and old alike.  It can be adapted to make a whole range of shapes and colours to decorate the festive tree and can be kept for future use since it is a natural insecticide.

Cotton

Wide mouth jar (pint sized)

White pipe cleaners

Borax

Pencil

Boiling water

Food colouring (optional)

Scissors

• Cut a pipe cleaner into three equal sections and twist them together at their centres to form a six-sided snowflake shape that would fit inside the jar when suspended from a pencil by cotton.

• Fill the jar with boiling water and dissolve borax one tablespoon at a time, with stirring (the amount used is 3 tablespoons per cup of water) and you can add food colouring if you want).

• Hang the snowflake freely in the jar and leave overnight.

2. Fluffy Slime

Now for something much more messy !  There are many recipes for slime on the web but this one is less wet and more fluffy by the simple addition of dad’s shaving foam !

You will need :
 

• ½ cup white PVA glue

• ½ cup shaving foam

• ½ teaspoon borax powder

• 1 cup water

• Blue, pink and yellow neon food colouring (or any you want really)

• In a large bowl mix glue and shaving foam with a spoon.

• Dissolve ½ teaspoon of borax in 1 cup of water.

• Add about a teaspoon of the borax and water mixture into the glue/shaving cream bowl and stir.

• Knead with your hands and if it's too sticky, add a tiny bit more borax and water mixture.

• Once your fluffy slime recipe is ready, separate into portions and mix a drop of desired food colouring in each.