Dangerous, Dangerous Dry Ice

Mrs. Bulloch's Physical Science class tested a phenomenon. A white cloud-like substance forms when dry ice is placed in water. Mrs. Bulloch carefully submerged dry ice in warm water that was mixed with Dawn dish soap. Almost instantly a reaction occurred! A thick vapor type fog swarmed the jar of dish mix and dry ice. The class oohed and awed!! Mrs. Bulloch closed the lid of the jar and bubbles began to form at the tip of the tube that was attached. "That is so cool!!", many students exclaimed. They were allowed to catch the bubbles with cotton gloves. The bubbles stuck to their gloves, and didn't pop! Some students tried to catch the bubbles with their bare hands. This didn't work. The bubbles would burst when they touched their hands and the cloud would fall between their fingers. We tried to work our brains to the fullest potential to figure out why! We soon discovered it had to do with surface tension. That is why the glove allowed the bubble to stay together. Many thoughts were considered throughout this investigation. We tried to decide what factors would cause the bubble to expand. Other questions were "What could change the color of the bubble?", "What other substances behave like dry ice?", and "What were the physical properties of dry ice?"

Oh! We also learned that the fog was carbon dioxide!!