Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Experiment #2013-11-26-A: Dry ice

This morning, our Amazon Fresh order was delivered pre-dawn. In the styrofoam cooler, keeping our Cool Whip and sausage cold, were two packs of dry ice. Since we changed up our routine lately, I've taken time in the mornings to be with my boys, so I decided to play with them and the dry ice.

We started by chucking one of the two blocks into the sink. Not terribly exciting by itself:

It was hard enough to see the goings-on that I grabbed a plastic container, filled it with water, put it on the table, and let the boys put the second block in (for this and the other two videos, see my Dry Ice Experiment playlist):



We discussed sublimation, density, temperature, et al.

Jacob was excited by the frozen water that formed on the dry ice:

They both wanted a jar of their own for pieces of the dry ice, but I told them we couldn't put a lid on it. Jacob immediately asked, "Or the lids will fly off?" He had the right idea (whether he knew it or not) in that there would be a build-up of pressure. I told him the lids would stay put, but the class would break. Maybe some day we'll try that experiment.