Flowing colors
Flowing colors AKA capillary action
With just a few items found around the house, we had a fun experiment that lasted a couple days. My son was really into it and kept checking on the process time after time.
Items needed for this activity:
- 6 transparent cups
- Food coloring
- Paper towels
Yes, with just these three things, you can have such a fun little experiment that kids can do all on their own and see results. You can use this to introduce to them the science behind capillary action and gravity.
First explain the primary colors to the kids (Red, Blue and Yellow). Fill 3 cups about half full with water.
Now, roll and twist 6 paper towels, so that it is a bit more flexible.
Add 3 drops of food coloring in three different cups.
Arrange the cups in a circle form. Make sure there is an empty cup in between the cups with color water.
Make a bridge using the paper towels connecting each cup.
Using capillary action, the water will flow from the cup with water to the empty cup. The color water will mix in the empty cups and we get secondary colors.
Now the toughest part ... waiting!
We left the 'experiment' running all night.
The next morning we observed that the water had flowed to the empty cups. Also, the water levels are about the same in each cup because of gravity.
Now for the next part of the 'experiment' we raised just one cup. As a result, the water in the raised cup was transferred into other cups, again because of gravity.
After a few hours, the blue cup was empty and the purple was more bluish and green was also a bit more bluish green.
If you do not have food coloring, you can try with turmeric and kumkum.
With just a few items found around the house, we had a fun experiment that lasted a couple days. My son was really into it and kept checking on the process time after time.
Items needed for this activity:
- 6 transparent cups
- Food coloring
- Paper towels
Yes, with just these three things, you can have such a fun little experiment that kids can do all on their own and see results. You can use this to introduce to them the science behind capillary action and gravity.
First explain the primary colors to the kids (Red, Blue and Yellow). Fill 3 cups about half full with water.
Now, roll and twist 6 paper towels, so that it is a bit more flexible.
Add 3 drops of food coloring in three different cups.
Arrange the cups in a circle form. Make sure there is an empty cup in between the cups with color water.
Make a bridge using the paper towels connecting each cup.
Using capillary action, the water will flow from the cup with water to the empty cup. The color water will mix in the empty cups and we get secondary colors.
Now the toughest part ... waiting!
We left the 'experiment' running all night.
The next morning we observed that the water had flowed to the empty cups. Also, the water levels are about the same in each cup because of gravity.
Now for the next part of the 'experiment' we raised just one cup. As a result, the water in the raised cup was transferred into other cups, again because of gravity.
After a few hours, the blue cup was empty and the purple was more bluish and green was also a bit more bluish green.
If you do not have food coloring, you can try with turmeric and kumkum.
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