I love snow! However, since it’s summertime where I live, there’s no snow to make a snowman. Even if I could build a snowman, as soon as I put it outside, it would start to melt. So, in this experiment, we will make our own snowman inside, and make it sizzle and melt!
What you need:
- Baking soda
- Vinegar
- Water
- A bowl or tray
- A pipette or dropper (optional)
Steps:
- Mix baking soda and water to form a doughy material you can shape with your hands and shape it into the 3 parts of a snowman
- Assemble the 3 parts to form a snowman in your bowl or tray
- Fill your dropper with vinegar and start to drop it over the snowman (if you don’t have a dropper, you can just pour a small stream of vinegar out of a bowl onto the snowman)
- Watch as the snowman starts to sizzle and “melt”
What makes the snowman “melt”?
The science behind this experiment is very similar to the “Carbon Dioxide Balloon” experiment. In both, vinegar and baking soda are combined and go through a chemical reaction and create the products of carbonic acid and sodium acetate (Vinegar + Bicarbonate Soda —> Carbonic Acid + Sodium Acetate). The product carbonic acid is unstable, and it breaks down into liquid water and carbon dioxide gas. However, while the “Carbon Dioxide Balloon” experiment observes the carbon dioxide gas when it fills up the balloon, this experiment observes the carbon dioxide gas through the sizzling bubbles of carbon dioxide that form beside the snowman.