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Experiment Guide

Dancing Raisins

You Will Need:
  • Baking soda
  • Vinegar
  • Raisins
  • Measuring cup
  • Teaspoon
  • Two-liter plastic bottle
  • Scissors
What To Do:
  1. Cut off the top of the two-liter plastic bottle.

  2. Pour one-and-a-half cups of water into the plastic bottle.

  3. Add one heaping teaspoon of baking soda and stir until it is dissolved in the water.

  4. Add four to six raisins to the water/baking soda mix in the plastic bottle.

  5. SLOWLY add one cup of vinegar into the plastic bottle.

  6. After a couple of minutes, what happens to the raisins?

What This Means:
In the plastic bottle, a base (baking soda) and an acid (vinegar) react to form a gas (carbon dioxide). As the gas forms, it adheres to the raisins in the bottle. Once enough gas adheres to a raisin, it will begin to rise to the surface. When it reaches the surface the gas escapes into the air and the raisin sinks. The raisin repeats this process for several hours or until the raisin gets soggy and too heavy to rise to the surface.
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