Acids and Bases

Chemicals can play an important role in any science project that you undertake. If you add the wrong chemical you may ruin the experiment or even worse, blow up your lab. Although that is a worst case scenario and may never realy happen with you if you are very careful about the chemicals that you use.

In most school labs the potentially risky chemicals are usually provided in a majorly diluted form to avoid any major mishaps. However it is important to know all the properties of a chemical that you may be handling in a science experiment. You do not want to burn yourself by accident.

So we know some chemicals are acids and it can be rather dangerous to drop these on our skin. So treat them with a lot of respect. The stuff that neutralizes or reduces the effect of acids is called bases. These are also quite strong and potent on their own, so make sure you handle them with care as well.

How would you care to use a vegetable like a cabbage to learn more about the properties of Acids and Bases? Yes it may seen like an unlikely teacher, but it is a good one. Check out this experiment over here. It does not need you to pick up any special chemicals to perform. All the stuff should be readily available in your fridge and kitchen at home.