Chemistry Stack Exchange
Chemistry Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [home-experiment]

For questions about a small-scale experiment which can be undertaken with reagents readily available around the house, while observing standard laboratory safety principles and practices. Do not confuse this tag with [everyday-chemistry] or [food-chemistry].

In simple language, a home-experiment is defined as a small-scale experiment which can be undertaken with reagents readily available around the house, while observing standard laboratory safety principles and practices

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Improving Elephant Toothpaste experiment

we are trying to perform the Elephant Toothpaste experiment involving the reaction of yeast and Hydrogen Peroxide for the students at school. However, the results have been very underwhelming, likely because we have to use the 3% version of Hydrogen…
itsnotme
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How to make Poinsettia pigment into ink?

Like many families, this winter we had bought a red poinsettia plant to decorate our kitchen, and now that it's losing its leaves, I had the genius idea to extract the red pigment. The activity proved a success, and let my 5 yr baby girl amazed (and…
Adrian Man
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Experiment to show that air contains about 20% oxygen

I remember that in my primary classed I had an experiment in science to show air contains 20% oxygen. The experiment involved taking a trough of water, lighting a candle in the middle of the trough and inverting a glass jar over the candle so that…
Gautam
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What acid did I accidentally create, and how?

So, I wasn't trying to do a chemistry experiment this evening; it was entirely unintentional! I was mixing up a batch of fertilizer for my plants (no nitrates involved, so I wasn't worried about potentially dangerous reactions). The main goal was…
KarenRei
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Pepper escaping soap on water

Following a book of science experiments for children with my daughter, we did the following: put some water in a shallow dish; put some ground pepper floating on the water surface; touch the water surface with the tip of a small stick previously…
DaG
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Is there a reaction happening between Coconut Oil & Hydrogen Peroxide?

On a whim, I mixed together some coconut oil and drug store (3%) hydrogen peroxide and washed my hands with it. It definitely felt less greasy than pure coconut oil, left my hands feeling clean and soft :) Did any chemical reaction occur between…
Eriek
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How would you separate sugar from water?

I'm a student and I've been getting interested in chemistry. I really like experiments and was brainstorming of possible things to try out, one of them was separating a homogeneous mixture. I thought of sugar water and tried looking it up online but…
Ramon
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Most effective means of removing coffee stains from carpet

I have several old coffee stains on a carpet. Googling "coffee stain removal" reveals a variety of suggested cleaning substances-- vinegar, baking soda, laundry detergent, etc. I have used all of these on stains in the past to varying success, but…
Sean Mackesey
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How can I make homemade ink?

I want to make some homemade ink suitable for amateurs to practice calligraphy. I have access to many household chemicals, including acetic acid, sodium hydrogen carbonate, sugar, sodium chloride, and more. Can someone give me an easy recipe for a…
Simon Kuang
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Detecting fake gold

I am thinking of buying gold. If necessary, one gram at a time. Is there a surefire way of checking if the alleged gold is real and of the stated caratage without a lab?
JJ_Jason
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What is the reaction in a child's 'add water and watch the egg hatch' toy?

My son and daughter got given gifts where you place a plastic egg in water, and the (rubber?) toy inside expands (over three days) and breaks the shell of the egg so it 'hatches'. I also observed that three weeks later the toys shrank again, but…
hawkeye
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Can I somehow 'reuse' the chemicals in glow sticks?

I particulary enjoy performing chemical experiments without buying any chemicals for them. I was always sad about the fact that one glowstick lights out, you just throw it into trash can (I like all means of recycling). So I was wondering if I could…
Tomáš Zato
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Grey "skin" on gallium

I have a sample of gallium (a few grams). I've noticed every time I melt the gallium and refreeze it, it forms this grey skin on the outside. When I remelt the gallium, this portion doesn't melt and remains a dull grey color. I have skimmed it off…
Aeolus
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Develop slow smoke for mini windtunnel

I want to create a small wind tunnel for testing of aerodynamics for Radio controlled units (Cars, planes and helicopters). In real wind-tunnels water mists are used but water isn't a good thing for the electronics. I have considered the…
Magic-Mouse
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How to activate charcoal

I readily admit to being a pyrophiliac and can generally be found near fire when there is fire. (Fire good, tree bad.) One of the byproducts of fire, naturally, is charcoal. I was looking into ways to activate charcoal instead of buying it over…
spoorlezer
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