This little experiment is perfect for those in the Northern Hemisphere who are entering the colder part of the year, but if it's summer time where you are, you can try it out too, there's no bad time to drink a delicious cup hot chocolate! This activity can be done with kids at home or educators can treat students to some fun teaching methods that involve this mouth watering treat, while learning something about the wonderful world of science at the same time! The materials are basic (and affordable) and the object of the activity/experiment gives good insight into how and why solid substances can dissolve in water.
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Start off by asking the children/students to write down their predictions. For instance; which cup of water do they think the hot chocolate will dissolve in first and how long will each cup to dissolve the substance?
Make sure each of your cups have the same amount of water in them, to make sure the experiment is accurate. Then measure the same amount of hot chocolate and place a heap into each of your cups. Start your timer and observe.
1. The hot chocolate in the hot water dissolved almost immediately, before it even had to be stirred.
2. The tepid water took longer to dissolve the substance and at least a minute of stirring was needed to move it along.
3. The ice water on the other hand did not want to dissolve the hot chocolate granules at all and after 3 minutes of stirring there was still a powdery substance that remain in the water, like in the image below:
Water and hot chocolate are made up of molecules. For these molecules to merge they need to come into contact with each other (bump into each other). This requires that movement takes place, for movement to happen you need energy. Heated water has a lot more energy than colder water, which makes the molecules move around faster and the reactions are sped up.
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Source link: https://creativefamilyfun.net/hot-chocolate-science/
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End this experiment off by letting the kids warm up all the hot chocolates and add some marshmallows or whipped cream – who says science can’t be fun!
@bearone
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