Mixing Colours with Volcanoes!

Today's experiment is a twist on the baking soda and vinegar volcanoes. We take it one step further to add colour mixing, to teach our young ones what happens when you mix two primary (blue, yellow, or red) colours together. (They form secondary colours, green, orange and purple). This experiment is super exciting for the kids because there is nothing that can hurt them, they can do all the work!

You Will Need:

• two containers, one large and one small (I use see-through ones so the kids can see the chemical changes)
• a spoon
• baking soda
• vinegar
• primary colour food colouring

Method:

1. fill the small container with vinegar (about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way full)
2. Add three drops of the lighter colour of food colouring or two drops of the darker colour you wish to mix. In this example we used blue.

3. Add a heaping spoonful of baking soda.

 4. The chemical reaction between the baking soda and vinegar will spill into the big container, but all of it won't go in, so pour the rest into the big container.

5. Wash and dry the small container, it's time for round two!

6. Replace the now empty and cleaned small container back into the middle of the big container. Add the same amount of vinegar and your new colour to it. Now you can clearly see the two different primary colours that will mix.

7. Add your baking soda only to the small container.

8. The new chemical reaction will cause the new colour to overflow into the big container, and the two colours will start to mix.

9. If it all doesn't go in, (which it won't), you can go ahead and pour the remaining new colour to fully mix the two together.

What's Happening: When the baking soda and vinegar mix, it creates a chemical reaction which creates bubbles of carbon dioxide (the same air we breathe out of our bodies) that overflow out of the container, carrying with it the colourful food dye.  When two primary colours mix, they make secondary colours, though the shades can vary depending on how much of each colour is used. If a lot more of one is used, it will create a tertiary colour instead (pronounced Tur-she-air-ee), this is why we balance the 2 drops of the darker with 3 of the lighter, to make sure we stay with secondary colours. 

Primary colours: blue, yellow, red. These are colours that you cannot MAKE. (You can't mix anything to create them).

Secondary colours: blue+yellow = green, yellow+red = orange, red+blue = purple

Tertiary colours: more blue than yellow = turquoise, more red than blue = maroon etc. There are infinate shades of colours by mixing different amounts of each.

Each time you try this experiment and change colours, you need to completely clean and dry each bowl.

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