Watch Acids and Bases Produce Colors!

What You Need:

• Bowl
• ¼ cup water
• ¼ cup vinegar
• ½ teaspoon turmeric
• ½ cup rubbing alcohol
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• Clear drinking glass

What You Do:

1. Have your child combine the turmeric and rubbing alcohol in the bowl.
2. Combine the baking soda and water in the glass.
3. Help your child to pour a sufficient amount of the turmeric/alcohol combination into the glass to effect a color change. Ask them to observe the reaction. What color was produced?
4. Have your child pour the vinegar into the glass.

What's Going On? Adding the pH indicator to the basic solution should have turned it red. Adding an acid (vinegar) made it foam and revert to its original yellow color.