Make a ghost glove
Impress your friends with this cool science experiment.
Make a 'ghost glove' by mixing and splitting carbonic acid! This experiment from the Nat Geo Kids book Try This! is guaranteed to get you excited about chemical reactions. This is a multistep reaction. Vinegar is acetic acid, and baking soda contains sodium bicarbonate, a base. They don’t just mingle when mixed—their molecules rearrange into something else.
WHAT TO EXPECT
As the baking soda reacts with the vinegar, it forms bubbles that inflate the glove.
Step 1
Pour three tablespoons (45 milliliters) of vinegar into the glass.
Step 2
Spoon two teaspoons (10 milliliters) of baking soda into the glove. Hold the glove by the wrist and shake the baking soda down into the fingers.
Step 3
Holding the fingers of the glove shut, stretch the wrist of the glove over the mouth of the glass.
Step 4
Pull the glove up straight to let the baking soda fall into the vinegar and observe what happens.
WHAT’S GOING ON?
When sodium bicarbonate combines with acetic acid, they form carbonic acid, which, in the second part of the reaction, divides into carbon dioxide and water. The carbon dioxide bubbles up, inflating the glove. At the end sodium acetate is left in the jar.