Water to Ink Experiment

[Richard]

I remember as a kid I had a chemistry set that had an experiment that
would change clear water to black and then back to clear again. Does
anyone know what chemicals this used and how the experiment was
performed. I am teaching some chemistry/magic lessons soon and I would
like to include this.

Thanks,
Richard Green

www.smallmiraclesentertainment.com

[Madalch]

Water to ink would probably be mixing a dilute solution of iron(III)
chloride (slighly yellow) with a dilute solution of tannin (weak tea-
slightly brown).

Turning it back...I'll get back to you on that.

[Mark Thorson]

Richard wrote:
>
> I remember as a kid I had a chemistry set that had an experiment that
> would change clear water to black and then back to clear again.
> Does anyone know what chemicals this used and how the experiment
> was performed. I am teaching some chemistry/magic lessons
> soon and I would like to include this.

A drop of food coloring will change clear to colored.
A drop of bleach will change it back.

Test it first, otherwise you may be surprised.
Like the time instead of going from blue to
clear, it went from blue to green.

[donald haarmann]

"Madalch" <tres...@gmail.com>

-----------
The "Gilbert Chemical Magic" booklet of 1920 suggests using tannic acid and ferric sulphate.

There are numerous other chemical magic tricks see also :-

Chemcraft Magic. The Porter Chemical Co. 1952.

Leonard A Ford. - Chemical Magic. Fawcett. 1964
- 2nd ed. Revised by EW Grundmeier. Dover Publications 1993

Richard L Palder Magic With Chemistry. Grosset & Dunlap. 1964

JD Lippy, Jr. and EL Palder. Modern Chemical Magic. No publisher. No date.

VE Johnson, Chemical Magic. C Arthur Pearson, Ltd. London. 1920.

&c., &c.

--
donald j haarmann
-------------------------------
The way to capture a student's attention is
with a demonstration where the is a possibility
the teacher may die.
Jearl Walker Cleveland State University.

[Chris Cooksey]

Perhaps this is it ...

9,750 hits for "iodine clock reaction" in Google

In article <1148673306.8...@i40g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>,
Richard <rtgre...@msn.com> writes

--
Chris Cooksey

[Richard]

Thanks Chris. This is really cool, but the reaction I remember was
instantaneous. It would be neat, though, to do the instant reaction
first and then show the clock reaction.

Thanks,
Richard
www.smallmiraclesentertainment.com

[Mark Kness]

Another recipe that works:
Prepare three solutions A, B, C as follows:
A = 5 g of 25% household bleach, and some (e.g. 15 g) water
B = 5 g of 0.1 M ascorbic acid (vitamin C), and some (e.g. 25 g) water
C = 2 mL of 2% tincture of iodine, 60 mL of 5% vinegar, 0.1 M ascorbic
acid added dropwise until the brown color all clears, starch solution

Procedure:
Add A to C. The OCl- oxidizes I- to I2, and this turns black with
starch indicator.
Add B to this. The ascorbic acid reduces I2 to I- and it turns
colorless again.

The amount of vinegar I specified above is excessive (but should work),
I came up with this amount to produce some other color changes, for a
more complicated version of this (more color changes involved, also
more reagents) at:
http://gotexassoccer.com/elements/experiments/aggie_curse.htm

This one has a description of a clock reaction with tincture of iodine,
ascorbic acid, 3% hydrogen peroxide and starch.
http://gotexassoccer.com/elements/experiments/clock.htm

[Richard]

Thanks. I'll play with this this weekend. It seems to be exactly what I
was looking for.

Richard
www.smallmiraclesentertainment.com

[joe kerr]

No, what is happening in each case are chemical reactions.
There is no way to turn water black and then back again.

These are chemicals you are messing with. What is the point of pretending
it is water. Some dumb kid might think "it's only water" in the end.

Chemistry Magic type books are great but they are intended for beginners
who want to learn.