Recipes for Volcano Eruptions
I. Ketchup & Baking Soda Volcano Materials
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small container (I used an empty travel-size bottle.)
volcano (You can mold it from clay or use a cardboard form.)
ketchup
baking soda
liquid dishwashing soap (optional)
water (optional)
Make the Volcano Erupt
This is really easy! Swirl together a squirt of dishwashing detergent (if you want foamy orange lava), ketchup, and enough water to
achieve the desired thickness. When you are ready to start the eruption, add baking soda. Alternatively, you could mix together the
baking soda, detergent, and water. Add the ketchup when you're ready for the eruption.
The 'lava' erupts slowly and steadily, rather than forcefully, so this is a nice volcano to make if you want a longer-lasting eruption.
How the Volcano Works
The ketchup contains vinegar, which is dilute acetic acid. The acetic acid reacts with the baking soda to produce carbon dioxide
gas. The gas bubbles expand and rise through the liquid, bubbling out the ketchup.
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II.
Okay, the baking soda volcano is the kitchen equivalent of a volcano, not a real one. It's cool all the
same! The baking soda volcano is also more or less non-toxic, which adds to its appeal.
Difficulty: Average
Time Required: 30 minutes
Here's How:
1. First make the 'cone' of the baking soda volcano. Mix 6 cups flour, 2 cups salt, 4 tablespoons
cooking oil, and 2 cups of water. The resulting mixture should be smooth and firm (more water
may be added if needed).
2. Stand the soda bottle in the baking pan and mold the dough around it into a volcano shape.
Don't cover the hole or drop dough into it.
3. Fill the bottle most of the way full with warm water and a bit of red food color (can be done
before sculpting if you don't take so long that the water gets cold).
4. Add 6 drops of detergent to the bottle contents.
5. Add 2 tablespoons baking soda to the liquid.
6. Slowly pour vinegar into the bottle. Watch out - eruption time!
7. Chemistry is Cool :-)
Tips:
1. The cool red lava is the result of a chemical reaction between the baking soda and vinegar.
2. In this reaction, carbon dioxide gas is produced, which is also present in real volcanoes.
3. As the carbon dioxide gas is produced, pressure builds up inside the plastic bottle, until the gas
bubbles (thanks to the detergent) out of the 'volcano'.
4. Adding a bit of food coloring will result in red-orange lava! Orange seems to work the best. Add
some red, yellow, and even purple, for a bright display.
5. What You Need:
 6 cups flour
 2 cups salt
 4 tablespoons cooking oil
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warm water
plastic soda bottle
dishwashing detergent
food coloring
vinegar
baking dish or other pan
2 T baking soda
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III.
Here's how to make a safe and easy chemical volcano using two common, inexpensive household
ingredients.
Difficulty: Easy
Time Required: minutes
Here's How:
1. It's incredibly easy to make this volcano. Basically, you pour the hydrogen peroxide solution (found
in pharmacies and grocery stores) into a small bottle. When you are ready for the eruption, add a
packet of quick rise yeast to the bottle. Stir in the yeast or swirl it around the container. Watch your
'volcano' foam and fizz!
2. If you're seeking more exact measurements, try a half cup of hydrogen peroxide with 1/2 tablespoon
of yeast. If you like, you can build a model volcano shape around the bottle using clay or a paper
cone.
What You Need:
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quick rising yeast
hydrogen peroxide
small bottle
measuring cups (optional)
paper or clay 'cone' (optional)
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IV.
Chemical volcanos are classic projects for science fairs and chemistry demonstrations. The mentos and diet soda volcano is
similar to the baking soda volcano, except the eruption is really powerful, capable of producing jets of soda several feet high. It's
messy, so you might want to do this project outdoors or in a bathroom. It's also non-toxic, so kids can do this project.
Difficulty: Easy
Time Required: chemical volcano takes a few minutes to set up and erupts for a few seconds
Here's How:
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First, gather your supplies. You can substitute another candy for the Mentos, such as M&Ms or Skittles, but ideally you
want candies that stack into a neat column with minimal space between them, have a chalky consistency, and barely fit
through the mouth of a 2-liter bottle.
Similarly, you could substitute normal soda for diet soda. The project will work just as well, but the resulting eruption
will be sticky. Whatever you use, the beverage has to be carbonated!
First, you need to stack the candies. The easiest way to do this is to stack them in a test tube narrow enough to form a
single column. Otherwise, you can roll a sheet of paper into a tube just barely wide enough for a stack of candies.
Place an index card over the opening of the test tube or end of the paper tube to hold the candies in the container. Invert
the test tube.
Open your full 2-liter bottle of diet soda. The eruption happens very quickly, so set things up: you want the open bottle index card - roll of candies so that as soon as you remove the index card, the candies will drop smoothly into the bottle.
When you're ready, do it! You can repeat the eruption with the same bottle and another stack of candies. Have fun!
What You Need:
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roll of mentos candies
2-liter bottle of diet soda
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index card
test tube or sheet of paper
a mop for cleanup
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V.
This easy science project works just like the usual Mentos™ and soda fountain except you use tonic water as the soda and
you shine a black light (ultraviolet lamp) on the fountain to make it glow. Here's what you do:
Glowing Mentos Fountain Materials
 roll of Mentos candies
 bottle of tonic water or diet tonic water
 black light
It doesn't matter whether you use regular tonic water or diet tonic water. What is important is that the tonic water lists quinine as
an ingredient, since this is the chemical that makes the liquid glow when it is exposed to ultraviolet light. Diet tonic water produces
a fountain that is less sticky than the spray from regular tonic water. The size of the bottle isn't critical. The project works with 20oz bottles, 1-liter, and 2-liter bottles. I have had the best luck with the 1-liter size.
This part is really easy, but it happens fast. The fountain sprays as soon as you slide all of the mentos (at once) into an open bottle
of soda. I made a video of this project, in case you would like to see it in action.
How to Get the Best Glowing Fountain
 Remove the label from the bottle of tonic water so that you can see the whole bottle glow.
 Of course, this will be pretty boring until you turn on your black light, so if you haven't done that, do it now. Place it
where it won't get drowned in tonic water, which could present an electrical hazard.
 The trick to getting a spectacular fountain is to make sure all of the candies drop at once into the bottle. Unwrap your
Mentos candies and stack them in a tube made from paper or cardboard. The candies won't fall out of their original
wrapper quickly or reliably enough, in my opinion. We rolled up a sheet of notebook paper so that the candies would all
fit in side, but would easily fall out the bottom. Eric put his finger in the bottom of the tube to keep the candies from
escaping.
 Line up the tube containing the candies with the open bottle of soda.
 Eric just removed his finger and all of the candies fell.
 An alternative is to set a piece of paper or cardboard over the mouth of the bottle. Remove the card when you want the
candies to fall.
 We used room temperature tonic water. Warm soda seems to fizz a little better than cold soda, plus it is less of a shock
when it splashes all over you.
 This fountain works exactly the same way as the original Mentos and soda fountain, except you have a glow from the
quinine in the tonic water. The ultraviolet light from the black light excites the electrons in the quinine molecules,
bumping them up to a higher energy level. What goes up must come down, which is true of energy as well as liquid from
a fountain. As the electrons return to their unexcited state, they release the energy they absorbed from the black light in
the form of a photo. Some energy gets lost in the reaction so the emitted photon is less-energetic blue light instead of
more-energetic ultraviolet light.
 As for the fountain itself, before you open the bottle of tonic water the carbon dioxide that makes it fizz is dissolved in the
liquid. When you open the bottle, you release the pressure of bottling and some of that carbon dioxide comes out of
solution, making your soda bubbly. The bubbles are free to rise, expand, and escape.
 When you drop the Mentos candies into the bottle, a few different things happen at once. First, the candies are displacing
the tonic water. The carbon dioxide gas naturally wants up and out, which is where it goes, taking some liquid along for
the ride. The soda starts to dissolve the candies, putting gum arabic and gelatin into solution. These chemicals can lower
the surface tension of the soda, making it easier for bubbles to expand and escape. Also, the surface of the candy becomes
pitted, providing sites for bubbles to attach and grow. The reaction is similar to what happens when you add a scoop of
ice cream to soda, except much more sudden and spectacular (and less tasty... a lot less tasty).
 http://chemistry.about.com/od/glowinthedarkprojects/ss/glowmentossoda_2.htm
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VI.
The lemon fizz project is a fun bubbly science project using kitchen ingredients that’s ideal for kids to
try.
Lemon Fizz Materials
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baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)
lemon juice or a lemon cut into quarters
liquid dishwashing soap (e.g., Dawn or Joy)
food coloring (optional)
spoon or straw
narrow glass or cup
The Lemon Fizz Project
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Put a spoonful (about a teaspoon) of baking soda into a glass.
Stir in a squirt of dishwashing liquid.
Add a drop or two of food coloring, if you want colored bubbles.
Squeeze lemon juice into the mixture or pour in lemon juice. Other citrus fruit juices work too, but
lemon juice seems to work the best. As you stir the juice into the baking soda and detergent, bubbles
will form that will start to push up and out of the glass.
5. You can extend the reaction by adding more lemon juice and baking soda.
6. The bubbles are long-lasting. You can't drink the mixture, but you can still use it for washing dishes.
How It Works
The sodium bicarbonate of the baking soda reacts with the citric acid in lemon juice to form carbon dioxide
gas. The gas bubbles are trapped by the dishwashing soap, forming fizzy bubbles.
Ideas from:
http://chemistry.about.com/od/chemicalvolcanoes/tp/chemicalvolcanoes.htm