30 Days of Science - Day 15

Do you want to make it rain?

Here is what you'll need:

* A 2 liter bottle (cut the dome part off of the top carefully)

*  Hot tap water

*  Ice

1.  Make sure the cap is screwed on tightly to the dome part of the 2 liter bottle you cut in two. 

2.  Fill the bottom part of your bottle about half full of water.  If you notice my picture above, you'll see I didn't do quite as much water.  It worked but might have worked better with more hot water.

3.  Turn the top part of the bottle upside down and fill it with ice.  Set this into the bottom part of the bottle and wait and see what happens.

You've now created a mini water cycle in your bottle and you can teach your kids about evaporation, condensation and precipitation.  Evaporation is when the water turns to a vapor gas and rises (like steam).  Condensation is when the gas turns back into water.  When the hot water from below rises it cools as it hits the icy area and turns back into water droplets.  This is the same thing that happens in nature when clouds are formed.  Precipitation is when the water droplets in this experiment get heavier and heavier and finally fall.  In nature, the water droplets get to heavy to float in the air (clouds) and create rain. 

Luke found this experiment in a book our friends gave us called Pop Bottle Science.  It comes in a cute kit but the best part is the book that you can buy here used.   I highly recommend it.