Carpet Cleaning Science Experiments/Demonstrations

[dday]

Hi Folks,

My twelve year old daughter has a science class assignment to come up with a science project/experiment/demonstration.

She has asked me to help her come up with an idea involving carpet cleaning and stain removal. Off the top of my head, a coffee & kool-aid demo with control cups is an obvious choice. Any other ideas would be appreciated.

Thank You,

David

 

[Art Kelley]

Remove some rust with Whink then neutralize with ammonia to get an impressive puff of smoke.

 

[ruff]

Red wine being a dye indicator stain: Red when acidic, Blue when alkaline.

And, what may come in handy, drawing a stain with a white towel - capillary action.

More fun, especially if done on school property- dragging a heavy furniture over an olefin carpet- melting the fiber.

Bleach dissolving wool.

Hey, the possibilities are limitless. I may try something tomorrow at work

 

[billyeadon]

Use 3-4 different foods colors in a saucer of water. Put one or two drops of Dawn dish soap into the saucer and watch the pychedelic color show. This shows wahta surfactant does.

Check out You Tube and surfactants to see how it is done. Or you can look at Jon-Dons Resource Center under videos and watch it there.

 

[John Watson]

Continuing with what Billy said, Petrie dishes with water and a needle float the needle and then show how you can make the water wetter and then sink the needle with a drop of LOC or something similar. Another dish and water shake black pepper to float all over surface. a drop of detergent on a toothpick hold in center watch the pepper. kids eat this stuff up.

 

[J Scott W]

Demonstrate how carpet protectors work. I have some white carpet samples if you want to do that.

 

[sweendogg]

baking soda and vingerger.. show how acids and bases neutralize and sometimes react Also if you do it right, you can turn it into a cork cannon with the great gas pressure

 

[dday]

Thanks for the ideas, folks! I think we'll be able to put together a fun (and potentially explosive?) show ...

 

[Shawn Forsythe]

Demonstrate the concept of HLB (hydrophile-lipophile balance), along with Bill Yeadon's suggestion.

In doing so, show how some detergents behave a little oil-like, and really perform oil emulsification well, but at the expense of water solubility insofar as rinsing. Then show how coupling agents and rinse agent surfactants help bridge a gap to alleviate the rinse problem. It's not as complicated as it sounds, but will blow people away.

Surfactants with a low HLB are more lipid loving and thus tend to make a water in oil emulsion while those with a high HLB are more hydrophilic and tend to make an oil in water emulsion.