illuminating science

So, I’ve jumped on the hot/instant ice bandwagon. This is the stuff that’s found in those instant heat packs - you know, the ones where you click the metal disc inside, and the liquid pad turns solid and heats up. The actual chemical involved is sodium acetate, which apparently is completely non toxic (and is actually used as a food additive!)

The gist is that you can dissolve more of the powder in hot water than in cold (just like dissolving sugar or salt - try dissolving as much as you can in a cup of cold water, then add some more, microwave and stir. It’ll all go in!) Then when it cools down, that extra dissolved powder wants to come out and solidify. But this requires a trigger to get things started - a crystal, a sharp knock, something. That lets you do all sorts of fun things (like the video shown above!) You can see the tower I made in my photo here. (You can also see - a mixture of corn flour and water (which makes a slime like mixture), some out of date eggs which I was trying to crush in my fist (you can’t with one hand), and some cream (which was for cocktails while I worked ) )

Unfortunately, I can’t quite get it right - either I haven’t dissolved enough powder, and the mixture won’t solidify when cooled and triggered. Or, I’ve added too much and it solidifies prematurely. But if at first you don’t succeed, try, try and try again! I’ll post my final recipe when I’m done!