A science activity video about density and creating a nine-layer density tower straight from the team of Sick Science!
Courtesy: Sick Science
So, how to build your density tower?
You have to follow a series of steps to make your own density tower by using various liquids and a few essential materials. So, let’s have a look at the steps below to create a 9 layer density tower.
Steps of the 9 layer density tower experiment
Note: Adult supervision is recommended for kids
Raw materials
- 1 Large glass vase
- Honey
- Corn Syrup
- 100% Maple Syrup
- Whole Milk
- Liquid Dish Soap
- Water
- Vegetable Oil
- Rubbing Alchohol
- Lamp Oil
- 1 Food Coloring Agent
- 9 Cups
- 1 Bolt
- 1 Pop Corn Kernel
- 1 Cherry Tomato
- 1 Soda Bottle Cap
- 1 Ping Pong Ball
- Some Beads
- 1 Die
- Food coloring agent ( green and blue)
- 1 Spoon
- 1 Turkey Baster
Steps to follow
- First, place all the empty cups on a table or flat surface. Now, measure an equal quantity of each liquid and pour it into each cup.
- Add a generous dose of green coloring agent in the cup containing water and mix it with a spoon. Similarly, add the blue coloring agent in rubbing alcohol. So, now you have green colored water and blue colored rubbing alcohol to make them stand out in your nine-layer density tower.
- Now, carefully pour the honey syrup into the glass vase followed by corn syrup and 100% maple syrup. Pour in such a manner that it does not touch the sides of the glass vase to create distinctive layers.
- Now, take the turkey baster to pour the milk and liquid dish soap respectively to carefully have them in the glass vase as layers. You can also use the turkey baster to put the rest of the liquids as layers one above the other. However, remember to allow each liquid to settle and separate before adding the next one.
- Next, gently release the bolt, cherry tomato, some beads, soda bottle cap, popcorn kernel, die, and the ping pong ball in the glass jar. You may have to take a straw to push the bottle cap so that it fills up and sinks.
- Your 9 layer density tower is ready with nine distinctive layers of liquids and seven objects!
Observation
Once you have completed all the steps, you will observe that you have successfully stacked all the nine different liquids within the glass vase. So, the honey is at the bottom, and the lamp oil is at the top. You will observe that the metal bolt sinks at the bottom of the vase, and the ping pong ball nicely floats at the top of the density tower. You will observe that some objects remain lower than certain liquids, and some manage to stay above some liquids.
How does density tower work?
Well, as the name of the experiment suggests, this density is the secret behind this density tower. For this reason, liquids that have higher densities such as honey, corn syrup, and maple syrup are at the bottom. Lamp oil, rubbing alcohol, vegetable oil, and water that are lighter liquids with lower densities manage to stay high in the tower. The same rule follows the objects floating in different layers of your density tower. Bolt has the highest density because of which it sank at the bottom. Here, ping pong ball has the lowest density among all the objects that you dropped inside the glass vase.
Key Takeaways
This amazing video of the 9-layer density tower experiment gives a deep insight into density of different liquids while having loads of fun at home. By dropping various objects in the tower, kids can also know which object has less density and which has more density than various liquids.
You can leave the density tower for some days to know whether any change occurs or not. You might be surprised to notice that the water from the milk will get separate. While its fat content will remain there, its water content will rose up in the density tower to eventually get mixed within the water layer.
Interested to explore more density science activities? Explore the below list..
Hot & Cold Water Science Experiment
Now, what is this density?
Density is how much an object is compact. Yes, this may sound tough to understand. So, let’s understand the same by answering this question. Whether a bag of 1 kg feathers or of 1 kg gold will be larger in size? Of course, the bag containing feathers will be larger because the density of gold is more than feathers. So, it is more compact than feathers.
Remember, both have the same weight and hence have the same mass. It is the difference in density because of which it is possible to pack 1 kilogram of gold in a much smaller space than 1 kilogram of feathers. The most exciting part of learning about density is that you can learn about the same with the help of easy experiments with things that you may have in your kitchen!
Learn more about density from Middleschoolchemistry
