EXPERIMENTS AND THE

SCIENCE BEHIND IT
REVIEW OF PREVIOUS TOPICS

BORAX CRYSTAL SNOWFLAKES

A crystal is a common form of solids and is made up
of a repeating basic structure in all three
dimensions. Crystals come in a variety of shapes
and sizes like diamonds, sea salt, rock salts, alum
salts and sugar.

 When crystals are dissolved in water, we get a

solution. Each solution has a maximum amount of
solid which can be dissolved in water. Once the
maximum amount has been dissolved, the solution
is said to be saturated. Any additional amount of
solid will not dissolve, and will remain as crystals.

Saturation is temperature dependent, and usually

the greater the temperature, the greater the amount
of material which can be dissolved in water.

CHROMATORGRAPHY
Paper chromatography is a method of separating
mixtures by using a piece of adsorbent paper. The filter or
paper used is known as the chromatogram.

The solution to be separated is placed on a piece of dry

filter paper, this is the stationary phase.

The solvent (the moving phase) is allowed to travel across

the paper by capillary action.

 As the solvent front moves, the components of the

mixture separate.

The components of mixture that is most soluble in

the solvent and least attracted to paper travel the
farthest.

Black ink is a mixture of various colors.

The water soluble ink travels farthest when water is
used as the solvent.

Water insoluble ink travels the farthest when alcohol

is used a solvent.

ICE CREAM MAKING

Commercial ice creams are made from water (55%64%), milk and cream (.28%), sugar (10-14%), and
flavorings and additives to help make the frozen
structure stable.

 At the microscopic level, ice cream is made up of

four phases: ice, air, fat and concentrated aqueous
solution. It is the relative amount of these phases
and the interactions between them that determines
the properties of the ice cream soft or hard.

Ice cream is both foam and emulsion ( a mixture of

two liquids that do not mix well). These are
examples of colloids as they consist of a dispersion
of small particles of one phase in another.

 The air in the ice cream does not mix with the other
substances but forms small bubbles.

The interface is stabilized by emulsifiers, here in this case the

emulsifiers are the milk proteins.