semperfiona: (try anything once)
Two weeks ago Tuesday, Tammie had a job interview for a lab position at WashU. (She called a few minutes ago to announce that SHE GOT THE JOB!!! ***SQUEE***) When she got home, Rosa put her little hands on her hips, confronted Tammie, and demanded, "Why didn't you pick me up?"

"Because Chris picked you up today."

"But you always pick me up!"

"I had a job interview."

"What kind of job?"

"A science job."

"SCIENCE!!!! I LOVE SCIENCE!" Rosa ran upstairs and grabbed the little Kitchen Chemistry kit she got for Christmas. "Let's do some science!"

Tammie begged off for the time and when I got home from work I was enlisted. I read through the book looking for something that didn't take much prep or make much mess, and picked "Rubbery Recipes". We found two small jars, put one of Roger's fresh brown eggs (harvested by Rosa herself, like as not) in one and a chicken bone from the previous night's fried chicken in the other, and filled them each with vinegar.

Sunday, we opened the egg jar. Sure enough, the shell was rubbery. Poking it gently it bounced back. Very similar to the texture of a peeled hardboiled egg, actually. Also, little brown granules rubbed off of it at a touch.

Not only that, but the egg had expanded. While it went *into* the jar easily enough, it did not want to come *out* again. Thinking I would push it back out of the neck of the jar, I poked it again. It POPPED.

Ew. Egg goo in vinegar with rubbery popped-balloon-like shell fragments, and a nasty smell. Closed the jar back up and put it in the trash.

The chicken bone is still stewing. Updates to come.
semperfiona: (try anything once)
At lunch at Taco Bell today, we got onto the subject of the shapes of crystals. So this evening, Rosa and I conducted science. These are her lab notes, transcribed as she wrote them. Unfortunately the decorative curlicues she put on the letters don't transfer, so you miss the full effect. However...

1. Mom cut 6 peesis of string.
2. I poot 2 strings on a nif.
3. Mom mesrd 12 oz of sugr.
4. Mom mesrd 6 oz of wotr.
5. She poot wotr and sugr in a pan.
6. She kookt sugr and wotr in a pan.
7. She kept stiring.
8. it looks Milky.
9. it booyld.
10. It was Klier.
11. We poot the Strings in sugr wotr.
12. We wate.

After about 45 minutes when there was no sign of crystallization, I remembered that the crystals had to be seeded. So

13. W poot sugr in a Glas.

There's still no crystals, and after a bit of googling, I've determined the problem is probably in the proportion of water to sugar. My memory of the process was a bit hazy.

Profile

semperfiona: (Default)
semperfiona

September 2024

S M T W T F S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
2223242526 2728
2930     

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 11th, 2025 03:45 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios
OSZAR »