Ink Chromatography at Home - Mad Science

Описание: Try this easy experiment at home - find out how below!

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Ink Anatomy Experiment: Step-by-Step

What you need:
3 colored washable markers
3 tall clear drinking cups
3 pencils
Coffee filter
Scissors
Water
Tape
Ruler

What you do:
Step 1: Use the ruler and pencil to draw three 2.5cm x 15cm (1" x 6") rectangles on the coffee filter. Cut out the rectangles. These are your test strips.
Step 2: Make a dot with a pencil about 2.5cm (1") up from the bottom of each strip.
Step 3: Make a big dot with a colored marker on top of the penciled dot. Repeat with the other strips using a different colored marker for each strip.
Step 4: Put a pencil across one cup’s mouth. Place a strip inside the cup so that the bottom of the strip just touches the bottom of the cup. Tape the strip to the pencil. Repeat with the other strips, pencils, and cups.
Step 5: Remove the strips (taped to the pencils) and fill each cup with about 1.7 cm (0.6") of water.
Step 6: Replace the strips (taped to the pencils) and wait for 15 minutes. What do you see?

What’s going on?
You just did a chromatography test! Chromatography comes from the Greek words for color and writing. We use this test to find out what colors make up a marker’s ink. The coffee filter strips soak up water. The water dissolves the marker’s ink, and carries the ink up the filter. Each ink color is made of particles of different sizes. Smaller ink particles can travel farther up the filter. As the water travels up, we see the colors separate out on the filter.

Now try this:
Test your color mixing know-how! Choose a few more markers and make a hypothesis about which ink colors have been mixed to make each marker. Test your guess using chromatography separation!