Apologia General Science Experiment 6.1

Apologia General Science Experiment 6.1

Alum in hot water, in a cup with a washer knotted onto a thread.  I think we were suppose to grow a crystal, but this experiment flopped.  We still have it on our counter--after six days, and I can see some crystals forming around the edge.  I'll take a new picture of what it looks like after sitting for a week, so you can see.  

We needed two tablespoons of Alum, two glasses, a plate, thread, two washers, and hot water.

We were only suppose to fill up this juice glass half-way, but we put in too much water, and it was too late to do anything about it.  We were to stir in the Alum, and stir until it dissolved, and it was *suppose* to have some Alum that wasn't going to dissolve, but ALL our Alum did dissolve.  After letting the stirred hot water settle, we were to carefully pour the top *clear* water into a new glass that has a washer at the bottom, attached to a string of thread, that is about eight inches long and goes out of the glass and out to the counter-top and has another washer holding it down.

Stirring the Alum in hot water in round glass.

This picture shows you the set up, after the Alum was dissolved into the round cup, and then we poured the alum-water from the round cup into the cup with the waiting washer.  

Immediately bubbles started coming up.

We had extra water left over so we decided to do the experiment twice and see how each glass does.  I'll post updated pictures soon, but I think nothing really happened except a *tiny* little crystal on one little spot on the thread and some crystallization on the glass where the water met the air inside.

Follow-Up Pictures after Six Days:

These two washers were identical when we started.  The pictures don't do a very good job of showing just how 'eaten' the washer on the right became.

Each thread had a chunk of crystal on it.

You can see the crystallization on the washer and the thread.

The Alum must have really been a weak acid b/c the washers really took a whale of a beating!  The smaller washer really is so much more frail compared to the outside washer.  You can see the metal flakes all in the water solution.

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