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CHEMICAL REACTIONS

Written Version 

What is a chemical reaction?
A chemical reaction is when particles hit each other, breaking old bonds between them and making new ones. When a chemical reaction happens a different chemical is made. 

How do you know when a reaction has happened?
If the liquid becomes hotter or colder than before, then a chemical reaction has happened.

If the colour of the liquid changes then a reaction has happened.

Fizzing & Bubbling also shows that a chemical reaction is happening. 
For this experiment, you will know that a chemical reaction is happening when the balloon starts to inflate. This is because the vinegar and baking soda will start to fizz and bubble, creating air which will go into the balloon, causing it to inflate. 

What affects a chemical reaction?
Usually, magicians don’t reveal their tricks but this time we will let you in on a little secret. Here are the things that affect the speed of a chemical reaction.

Surface area is how much area there is to touch. If there are more spaces to touch then there is more space for a chemical reaction to happen. 

Catalyst is something that speeds up a reaction without actually changing what is happening. For example, when you are cooking something, mixing will speed up the process. 

Temperature is how hot or cold the materials are. When you heat up an object, it starts to move faster and faster, because of this, the chemical reaction will speed up. 

In this picture there are two boxes which are the same size, however, in the first box, there are more red dots than in the second box. Since there are more dots in the first box the dots will hit each other more often which makes the reaction faster. 
For this experiment, we added more baking soda into the same amount of vinegar like the two boxes and dots. This made the balloons bigger each time more baking soda was added. 

 

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