Water is essential for life. All living things need water to stay alive, and without water we will surely die. Many countries do not have proper drinking water and the water running through taps are often not suitable for drinking.
Water pollution plays a great role here and it is becoming more and more complicated to keep water recycled. We live in an area where the municipality is not doing the essential work to ensure water flow and many days we are without water.
This makes it extremely difficult to function normally and you can’t wash clothes, cook properly or even wash ourselves because of this issue. I decided to write about water as it is a very interesting topic and there are so many interesting experiments that can be done with water. Just like in life, there are certain things that don't mix well. One of the things that is quite a big issue in water pollution is oil spills. When oil is spilled in water or the ocean then it serves a great danger for all sea animals. People are mostly responsible for these disasters and many animals die as a result.
Let us see what happens if we mix oil and water.
Here is what you will need:
- Plastic see through cup or bottle.
- Water
- Food colouring
- 2 tablespoons of cooking oil/vegetable oil. Any oil would work.
- Dish washing liquid
What's happening?
Oil is more dense than alcohol, but less dense than water. The molecules that make up the oil are larger than those that that make up water, so they cannot pack as tightly together as the water molecules can. They take up more space per unit area and are less dense.
Water mixes easily with other forms of liquid, but not with oil. The molecules in water is strongly attracted to each other, and the same for oil, makes it difficult to mix. Oil is much less dense than water so once you mix the oil and water each attracts to their own molecules so they don't mix. They separate and the oil will float on top of the water because it has a low density.
Do you know why dish washing liquid works so well in cleaning your dishes and rid it from oil and dirt?
Dish washing liquid is attracted to both water and oil. It forms an emulsion which takes the grease from the plates and into the water, and whalla! hands and dishes clean!
