H for Hot Vs Cold
What kind of idea do you think little children would have framed about hot and cold things? Perhaps, the difference in temperature, by touching with fingers, observing the hot flames or cold droplets. or by feeling the temperature on the lips or tongue when consuming a food or drink. Something children might not be introduced yet is how substances behave in different temperatures. Let’s do a one-minute experiment to demonstrate what happens when a food color is dropped in hot and cold water.
Tips to introduce
- You may want to complete the density experiment before you begin this though not mandatory.
- If they have ever observed sugar settled at the bottom of a juice or milk, it can be a good point to begin your conversation on the topic.
- The hot and cold water temperature experiment is quite a fundamental thing and can be easily grasped by little children. So you really need not think of ways to get to the subject.
- Collect the materials required and just dive into the experiment!
Things you’ll need
How do you do it?
1. Take two glasses one filled with hot water and the other with cold water.
2. Add 2-3 drops of food color into each glass. Observe what happens.
You will see that the food color easily mixes up well and spreads uniformly within the glass with hot water, while inside the cold water, the color stagnates at the top and gets into the water slowly and unevenly.
The Science behind
As discussed in the density experiment, the molecules in the cold water are more densely packed within the glass, that is, cold water has a higher density. So the particles of the food color finds it difficult to pass through the dense cold water. However, the molecules in the hot water are loosely packed, that, is hot water is less dense than hot water. Hence, the food color finds it way into the hot water easily and dissolves in no time.
And this is exactly why sugar or salt readily dissolves in a hot tea or coffee, while some settles at the bottom when preparing a chilled drink.
Share your experience
Did you try? Did it work? Leave a word in the comment section. I would love to hear!
Here’s the full list of DIY Science Experiments in this series:
A for Air – Does Air has Weight?
B for Buoyancy – Can Egg float on Salt Water?
C for Capillary action – Rainbow Walking
D for Density – 3 Layer Density Experiment
E for Earth & Moon – Why does the Moon change its shape?: Phases of the Moon
F for Fire – Does Fire need Oxygen to Burn?
G for Gravity – Defying Gravity
H for Hot Vs Cold – Water Temperature Experiment