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Elephant Toothpaste Experiment

The document describes the elephant toothpaste experiment which uses hydrogen peroxide, yeast, soap and food coloring to produce a large amount of foam. The reaction occurs when yeast acts as a catalyst, breaking oxygen from hydrogen peroxide and creating bubbles. The concentration of peroxide used affects the size, duration and speed of the reaction. The experiment is a fun way to learn about chemical reactions.

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Manuela Quintero Aristizabal
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
94 views

Elephant Toothpaste Experiment

The document describes the elephant toothpaste experiment which uses hydrogen peroxide, yeast, soap and food coloring to produce a large amount of foam. The reaction occurs when yeast acts as a catalyst, breaking oxygen from hydrogen peroxide and creating bubbles. The concentration of peroxide used affects the size, duration and speed of the reaction. The experiment is a fun way to learn about chemical reactions.

Uploaded by

Manuela Quintero Aristizabal
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Elephant toothpaste Experiment

By: Manuela Quintero Aristizabal. 10A

Elephant toothpaste is an innovator experiment that has become very


famous in the recent months, a big amount of people in social media have
been sharing amazing videos, explanations and cool photos of it. This
experiment was created mostly for having a nice time while learning basic
concepts of chemistry and also to demonstrate how with a small quantity of
materials a great result can be visualized. The most interesting part of the
experiment is the facility and the few risks it brings, as long as you do it with
caution and taking into account all the advices. Just by following the steps
given by internet pages or even YouTube videos everything goes perfect.
Materials needed are: empty plastic bottle, yeast, warm water, dish soap,
hydrogen peroxide, measuring cups, measuring spoons , liquid food coloring
and the most important safety glasses.
The majority of people should be familiarized with the word “hydrogen
peroxide” but in the antiseptic way when mothers use it with their children
for clean their cuts and scrapes, the truth is that this substance is also really
useful on the scientific aspect. It is a liquid made from hydrogen atoms and
oxygen atoms and its chemical formula is H2O2, the peroxide is available in
different levels of concentration but the most common one is the 3 percent,
the higher the concentration, the more dangerous it would be…So it is
important to be aware before making the experiment.
The procedure is simple, first is necessary to combine the two tablespoons of
warm water with the one of yeast till it is dissolved completely. Then, pour
1/2 cup of hydrogen peroxide into the empty bottle and a little bit of food
coloring of any color for making the results look awesome. Next in line, add
some soap into the bottle and finally pour the mixture of the beginning into
the bottle. Now it could be observed a great explosion of color, but why this
reaction happens? It is thanks to the mixture of the yeast with the hydrogen
peroxide, the yeast then acts like a catalyst (substance used to speed up the
reaction) it rapidly broke apart the oxygen from the hydrogen peroxide,
creating lots of bubbles. Another effect it could be seen is the bottle getting
warmer by a reaction called “Exothermic Reaction” so apart from creating
foam it results making also heat!
An important aspect for having into account is that depending on the
concentration of the peroxide use in the experiment, the different reactions
could be seen (size, duration and even speed of the final result).
In conclusion, the elephant toothpaste experiment is a really cool way of
learning different aspects from science while having a little fun and enjoying
the moment. At the end of all it is noticed that mixing two different kind of
substances as hydrogen peroxide and yeast new reactions occur making it
clear that science is progressing more and more while the years pass.

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