Did you know you can make a cloud of fog in your kitchen with just a few simple (and cheap!) items? The kids love it, and you will too!
This experiment will need to be conducted by an adult due to the extremely cold ice and the very hot water.
What you need
- Large clear bowl
- Serving tongs or thick gloves
- Dry ice (available at most supermarkets)
- Hot water
How it works
Heat up a few cups of water, either on the stove or in a coffee pot. Use tongs or gloves to add a few pieces of dry ice into the empty bowl. Slowly add the hot water into the bowl and watch the dry ice create a cloud of fog in the bowl.
The cloud is perfectly safe to touch, just don't reach too far into the bowl where the hot water is. Add more hot water or more dry ice for a greater effect. The hotter the water, the more fog is produced.
Why it works
Dry ice is just carbon dioxide in a solid ice form, which is more than 100 degrees below zero! Since it is so cold, even room temperature air can be enough to turn the ice straight to a gas, which is a process known as sublimation. The addition of hot water causes the dry ice to turn to a gas more rapidly, and the warm air around the dry ice quickly condenses into a thick fog.
Dry ice is commonly used on film sets and in Halloween exhibits to produce a thick, eerie fog!