That's Hilllllarrrrrrious! (Amazing)

Today I quenched their unquenchable thirst for explosions.  It's the classic film canister explosion.  An alka- seltzer capsule and some water in a film canister, put the top on and BOOM! Explosion. We started one at a time and then two, three, four... up to eight- in a display they called "fireworks."  This was a great chance to talk about air and gases, things they can't see, but can see the proof of in this explosion.  For a slight variation we added lemon juice; This reaction is a lot faster, so you have to cap faster.  It also is more explosive.  We had a few canisters literally doing flips when their tops popped, where as with the water they often stood standing, only sometimes tipping on their side. 

The video below is the fifth time we did this of over fifty times. They laughed and screamed like this every time.  One child kept saying "that's hilllllarrrrrrious!" each time getting a little more excited and saying it a little louder.  This is actually one of the quieter times we did this experiment (some kids were in the bathroom).  
  

The children put the capsules in and water using the turkey basters, then ran back to their sitting places while I topped and popped them.  I topped them and had them sit for safety reasons.  Once while doing a "fireworks" display of eight, one popped and hit me in the eye while I was still capping the last one.  It hurt quite a bit- not something you want to happen to a little one!


*We also popped packing poppers today, I will load pictures in a new entry later.