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I am curious if anyone else had trouble with the science exp in unit 8 where you put some oil in the water and shake it and the oil rises back to the top. Then you put in some salt and shake it and the oil is supposed to sink. It didn't work, the oil still rises to the top and I am a bit confused, if the salt in the ocean made the oil sink then we wouldn't have problems with the oil spills from tankers.

Am I missing something here?

So I'm guessing no one else had trouble with this experiment?

Ok this was driving me crazy. I am not doing Beyond but we just did the experiment because of course I already have Beyond and it works like a charm.

So wondering if you maybe put too much oil or not enough water. I put about 3/4 cup of water then put in the dye and exactly 6 drops of oil then sprinkled quite a bit of salt on it. Shook madly and whala the oil is now int eh bottom corner of the bag.

Why does this not work int he ocean. Don't know for sure but we are talking way more oil, salt that may be bound already to other things rather than free salt ready to bing the minuscule amount of pure oil not crude oil. But really do not know for sure. Cool experiment though.

So if you are not putting too much oil, have enough water and have colored it so you can actually see that it worked and have enough salt (I probably threw at least a tsp or more) maybe you have additives that are somehow interfering in your water? Maybe try it with spring water or plain old bottled water. It's cool though so worth the effort. Let me know what the snafoo is though. I am really curious!

Here is a similar experiment with an explanation. Apparently if you have more oil you get a little lava lamp action type deal.http://www.exploratorium.edu/science_ex ... lcano.html

water2wine wrote:Ok this was driving me crazy. I am not doing Beyond but we just did the experiment because of course I already have Beyond and it works like a charm.

So wondering if you maybe put too much oil or not enough water. I put about 3/4 cup of water then put in the dye and exactly 6 drops of oil then sprinkled quite a bit of salt on it. Shook madly and whala the oil is now int eh bottom corner of the bag.

Why does this not work int he ocean. Don't know for sure but we are talking way more oil, salt that may be bound already to other things rather than free salt ready to bing the minuscule amount of pure oil not crude oil. But really do not know for sure. Cool experiment though.

So if you are not putting too much oil, have enough water and have colored it so you can actually see that it worked and have enough salt (I probably threw at least a tsp or more) maybe you have additives that are somehow interfering in your water? Maybe try it with spring water or plain old bottled water. It's cool though so worth the effort. Let me know what the snafoo is though. I am really curious!

Here is a similar experiment with an explanation. Apparently if you have more oil you get a little lava lamp action type deal.http://www.exploratorium.edu/science_ex ... lcano.html

OK, we did it again. I see the salt on the bottom but I still see an oil sheen on the top. My son thinks it worked so I guess that's good enough.
I may keep experimenting...

I am not sure why this didn't work for you, but I remember doing it last year, and it worked just fine. Perhaps you are just not meant to do this experiment... or maybe there is a scientific mystery going on in your house that needs to be solved! If your son got the key idea from it though, I'd say - way to go! That's the important thing anyway, so if you've got that covered, I'd say good job, Mom!