THE SCIENCE LAB

Make & Do Activity Kit

Glowing jelly cups

Discover the science behind the special glowing properties found in tonic water. This recipe makes a spooktacular dessert for Halloween!

Time: 15 minutes + Difficulty: Hints: As quinine has a slightly bitter taste

serve the jelly with sweetened cream and hundreds and thousands.
contents of packet 1. Empty into a bowl and add 1 cups (375ml) of boiling water and stir until dissolved. 1 1/3 cups (330ml) of 2. Add cold tonic water and stir. In this step the tonic water is replacing the cold tap water that the packet instructions ask for.

What you will need:

a small 85g packet of green jelly crystal 1 1/2 cups boiling water 300ml tonic water 6 clear plastic cups a mixing bowl a mixing spoon or fork a black light

into individual clear 3. Pour plastic cups.

Optional: Sweet cream or icecream and sprinkles. Note: Black lights can be purchased from specialty lighting shops or hardware stores such as Bunnings.

until firm. This 4. Refrigerate may take up to 4 hours.

from fridge. To 5. Remove mask the slight quinine taste add sweet cream to each jelly cup and top with hundreds and thousands. under or next to a 6. Serve black light and watch as the jelly glows!

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THE SCIENCE LAB

Make & Do Activity Kit

Glowing jelly cups

Page 2

What else can i do?

Control batch

Whats going on?

Tonic water is a fizzy soft drink flavoured with quinine which gives it a slightly bitter taste. The name tonic water comes from the medicinal effects the quinine has. It was added to the drink to help fight against the disease malaria. Quinine becomes fluorescent under ultraviolet light. Ultraviolet light Black lights produce a special type of light called ultraviolet (UV). Things that glow when placed under a UV light are called fluorescent. The tonic water glows because of the presence of the quinine.

To show that its not the jelly crystals causing the glow, make a batch using plain water instead of tonic water in another experiment. We call this a control as we are not making any changes to it. Did it glow in the dark? Reduce the amount of tonic water You could do another experiment reducing the amount of tonic water. This will also help reduce the bitterness in the taste. Does the amount of tonic water we use alter the brightness of the glow? Other colours of jelly. Try using other colours of jelly. Which colour combination creates the best overall glow? Glow in the dark iceblocks Try freezing tonic water to discover if it will still glow. Discovering fluorescence What other fluorescent objects can be found around your home? Try white paper, petroleum jelly, highlighter markers, bananas with spots, pet scorpions, canola oil. How about your smile? Vitamin A and the B vitamins thiamine, niacin, and riboflavin are strongly fluorescent. Try crushing a vitamin B-12 tablet and dissolving it in vinegar. The solution will glow bright yellow under a black light. Note: Not all science experiments can be eaten. In this experiment we are only using food products and preparing in a kitchen so it is safe to eat.

500 Harris St Ultimo PO Box K346 Haymarket NSW 1238 Australia

Tel: 02 6217 0111 http://play.powerhousemuseum.com

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercialShareAlike 2.5 License.