Cup and Saucer Chemistry (Dover Children's Science Books)

Great old fashioned activity for kids!Wonderful way to learn about science with articles found at home!

I expected the experiments to be listed more like a recipe, but this is written in paragraph form and involves a lot reading to even find out what supplies are needed. Also, I thought the ingredients would be items around the house and many are not.

This is an interesting book I remember seeing as a geeky kid back in the third grade. Seriously, it's an excellent "Chemistry 101" book for a grade-school or middle-school audience, for the most part. Acid-base chemistry, aqueous solutions, precipitates, vinegar/baking soda fun, and even a clever way to make 'safe' amounts of explosive hydrogen gas. About the only thing I wish they would have included is purple cabbage juice, which is a better overall pH indicator than phenolphthalein. With cabbage juice you get all different colors for varying degrees of acidity or basicity.There is an experiment toward the end on how to make soap using sodium carbonate as the reactive base instead of lye. It sounds like a convincing guide on how to do soap "the safe way." Trouble is, I tried making soap from washing soda and fat several times as a kid, and at least once as an adult. With enough patience, and a LOT of scraping caked carbonate from the sides of the pan, you can get a gooey solid (the soap molecules) to form after several hours of slow cooking. It's still very greasy and very alkaline, and there's no way you could possibly wash your hands with it. This leads me to believe that sodium carbonate is too weak a base to carry the soap reaction to completion. Too bad, because it sure sounded like an intriguing idea. Maybe future versions of the book will be smart enough to scrub this failed chem lab?