Floating Ghosts

🎂 5 + years ⏱️ 30 min 📍 At home ⭐ medium

Floating ghosts for Halloween. How cool is that? With this experiment, you can make your kitchen spooky! You don't need much, just a few things you probably already have at home. And you're ready to send your ghost beans into a wild dance. Sounds exciting? Then pay attention! Your friends will be amazed when the ghosts suddenly float. Baking soda and vinegar, the secret potion, will bring your little bean ghosts to life! So grab the jars and let’s make Halloween really fun.

What you'll need

A mason jar or a glass vase
Vinegar
Dried white beans
A black permanent marker
Water
A spoon
1 tablespoon of baking soda (you can also use baking powder)

How it works

Grab the white beans and the black permanent marker. Draw a funny or spooky ghost face on each bean. Two big eyes and a scary mouth.
Now it gets exciting! Fill your jar with water, but leave enough space at the top. Then add a spoonful of baking soda to the water and stir well until everything is dissolved. This is your "potion" that will make the ghosts dance!
Now carefully place your ghost beans into the jar. Watch closely. The beans will sink to the bottom at first. Then take the vinegar and pour a splash into the jar. And watch out! It’s going to fizz! The bubbles will attach to the beans and make them rise, as if by magic.
But don’t worry, after a while they will sink again, only to rise up once more. A real ghost dance! Depending on how much vinegar you add, it can bubble and splash quite a bit.
You can repeat the experiment over and over and try different things. What happens if you add more or less vinegar and sometimes more or less baking soda?
Why do the ghost beans float at all? The mixture of baking soda and vinegar creates bubbles that stick to the beans. These bubbles carry the beans upwards. Once the bubbles pop, the beans sink back down.
Because when vinegar meets baking soda, carbon dioxide is produced. A gas that forms the little bubbles. Now you know the secret and can become real Halloween wizards. Show your experiment to your friends or parents. Everyone will be amazed, promise!