How To: Experiment with double density

Can you guess which household liquids sink and which ones float? Play along with the A-TV science team in this video lesson!

1. Do a Liquids Mix Experiment: First thing you are going to do is take a glass beaker and pour some water into it. If you don't have a glass breaker, you can use a glass jar. Pour about a cup and a half of water into the beaker. Once you've poured your water into the beaker, add about a cup of oil to the water. See how the oil and water have formed two distinct layers? That's because the water is more dense then the oil and they don't mix. Now that we have our oil and water in our beakers, it's time to add a few drops of food coloring to the beaker. Slowly add about 3 or 4 drops of food coloring into the beaker. See how the drops are floating around in the oil? The food coloring is more dense than the oil so it won't mix with it. The last step to this experiment is to take a spoon and push the drops of food coloring into the water. The color mixes with the water because they have the same density level.

2. Hydrometer experiment: A hydrometer measures density in liquids. The first thing you need to do is take your clay and roll it into a ball. After you've made your clay ball, make a small hole in the top of it. To make the hole, use your pinky finger or a pencil, and then put your straw in the whole. Smooth the clay around the straw so that there are no open spaces between the straw and the clay. We are going to test out our hydrometers in 4 different liquids; dish soap, oil, water, and corn syrup. Remember, the higher your hydrometer floats the denser the liquid. Insert your hydrometer into water, corn syrup, dish soap and oil. When you place your hydrometer into each liquid, observe how it floats and write down how high its floats or if it sinks to the bottom. The higher your hydrometer floats the denser the liquid.

Follow along with the science experiments in this video tutorial and learn how to perform experiments on double dens