![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
May. 23rd, 2007 03:50 pmLast night I said to Rosie: "What would you like to do with mommy tonight?"
She said, "SCIENCE!"
So we finally did another Kitchen Chemistry experiment. We'd bought the red cabbage weeks ago, and it languished in the fridge for a long time, but last night we got it out. I chopped and pureed one quarter of it. We strained the lumpy gunk until we had a deep magenta liquid. Then we got out nearly all the clean glasses from the cupboard and filled each one with a different household liquid. (Or in some cases, a household powder dissolved in water.)
Rosa poured a teaspoonful of cabbage juice into each glass. To my amazement, the indicator "reaction" was dramatic. Baking soda water turns a lovely summer-sky blue. Vinegar turns a screaming hot pink worthy of derby girls. Milk turns a nice lilac. Our tap water is rather bluish, the water cooler bottled water slightly more purple.
I guess I'd known cabbage juice was a pH indicator, but I had not seen it before. Pretty pretty. The only downside is um, well, in a word? It stinks.
Works best on light colored or clear liquids, however. It was really not possible to determine the color indicated on Coke or soy sauce (even diluted).
She said, "SCIENCE!"
So we finally did another Kitchen Chemistry experiment. We'd bought the red cabbage weeks ago, and it languished in the fridge for a long time, but last night we got it out. I chopped and pureed one quarter of it. We strained the lumpy gunk until we had a deep magenta liquid. Then we got out nearly all the clean glasses from the cupboard and filled each one with a different household liquid. (Or in some cases, a household powder dissolved in water.)
Rosa poured a teaspoonful of cabbage juice into each glass. To my amazement, the indicator "reaction" was dramatic. Baking soda water turns a lovely summer-sky blue. Vinegar turns a screaming hot pink worthy of derby girls. Milk turns a nice lilac. Our tap water is rather bluish, the water cooler bottled water slightly more purple.
I guess I'd known cabbage juice was a pH indicator, but I had not seen it before. Pretty pretty. The only downside is um, well, in a word? It stinks.
Works best on light colored or clear liquids, however. It was really not possible to determine the color indicated on Coke or soy sauce (even diluted).
