👉 Watch the video of Sarah’s science experiment at Bob Hope Elementary School here!
Hello parents, teachers and students!
Be sure to check out GMSA@9 on Wednesdays when Meteorologist Sarah Spivey does the demonstrations and explains the science behind it.
HERE’S WHAT YOU’LL NEED
- 7 clear cups
- Sugar
- Water
- Food dye
- Tablespoon
- 1 cup measuring cup
- Spoon
- Permanent marker
- Syringe or dropper
DO THE EXPERIMENT
- STEP 1: Take 6 of the clear cups and label them with these numbers: 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10
- STEP 2: Fill each cup with one cup of water
- STEP 3: Add the number of tablespoons of sugar to the cups. 0 gets 0 sugar, 2 gets 2 tablespoons of suger, 4 gets 4 tablespoons of sugar, etc... Stir until the sugar is dissolved. This could take a while for the cups with more sugar!
- STEP 4: Dye each of the cups a color of the rainbow. 0 = red. 2 = orange. 4 = yellow. 6 = green. 8 = blue. 10 = Violet
- STEP 5: Take the empty cup and add a little of the violet sugar water to to bottom.
- STEP 6: Using the syringe, slowly add some of the blue sugar water to the cup. It’s best to use the edge of the cup to slowly layer the sugar water.
- STEP 7: Repeat slowly until you end with the red water with no sugar in it. Hold your cup up to the light and you should see the rainbow layers of sugar water. Cool!
HOW IT WORKS
As you add sugar to the water, you increase the density. In our experiment, the purple cup is the most dense. The red water is the least dense, so it floats.
SCIENCE WITH SARAH
If you’d like Sarah and David to come to your school and conduct a science experiment live on KSAT, fill out this form. “Winners” are selected at random.