Fantastic Foamy Fountain

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Here is a fun experiment we tried this week. It's called the fantastic foamy fountain- or Elephant Toothpaste.  It's fun to see the the simple chemical reactions you can make from things in your own house!

To make this you will need:

A clean plastic soda bottle or water bottle

1/2 cup 6% solution hydrogen peroxide liquid (Get this from a beauty supply store - I used regular 3% solution & it worked well, but 6% gets even foamier)

1 Tablespoon (one packet) of dry yeast

3 Tablespoons of warm water

Liquid dish washing soap

Food coloring

How to do it:

As you can see from the picture, foam will overflow from the bottle, so be sure to do this experiment on a washable surface, or place the bottle on a tray.

1. Pour the hydrogen peroxide into the bottle.

2. Add 8 drops of your favorite food coloring into the bottle.

3. Add about 1 tablespoon of liquid dish soap into the bottle and swish the bottle around a bit to mix it.

4. In a separate small cup, combine the warm water and the yeast together and mix for about 30 seconds.

5.  Pour the yeast water mixture into the bottle (a funnel helps here) and watch the foaminess begin!

How does it work?

The foam you made is special because each tiny foam bubble is filled with oxygen. The yeast acted as a catalyst (a helper) to remove the oxygen from the hydrogen peroxide. Since it did this very fast, it created lots and lots of bubbles. Did you notice the bottle got warm. Your experiment created a reaction called an Exothermic Reaction - that means it not only created foam, it created heat! The foam produced is just water, soap, and oxygen so you can clean it up with a sponge and pour any extra liquid left in the bottle down the drain.

This experiment is sometimes called "Elephant's Toothpaste" because it looks like toothpaste coming out of a tube, but don't get the foam in your mouth!
 -Info from Science Bob