White Powder

Hurumanu - What is that white powder?

Today you will be a Forensic Chemist. 

A bag of white powder has been confiscated by airport customs.  You need to find out what white powder it is?

Aim: To learn about the makeup of different white powders.

There are a number of different white powders in our everyday life. Some of these are harmful and others are not. Test the four white powders listed to see which one has been found at the airport.

Here are some examples of everyday kitchen white powders.

Flour, Cornflour, Sugar, Salt, Baking Soda, Baking Powder, Icing Sugar, Tartaric Acid

Citric Acid, Gluten Free Flour

You will be given a small amount of 4 white powders on your cardboard. On the black cardboard using a magnifying glass look at the powders.

Look at them under your magnifying glass and record what you see. 

These are the four powders we will be using. Upload a photo of each powder. 

1.  Cornflour
2.  Baking Soda
3.  Salt
4.  Sugar 

Before you add the iodine, vinegar or water you will need to divide each powder into 3.

Materials

1.  cornflour

2.  baking soda

3.  salt

4.  sugar

5.  vinegar

6.  iodine

7. water

Steps

1.get powders split them into thirds 

2. add the iodine to 1/3  of all the powders

3. watch

4. add water to another third of all the powder

5. watch

6. add vinegar to another third of all the powder

Findings:

the mystery powder is baking soda

	Sugar	Salt	Baking Soda	Cornflour
Appearance	white	white	white	white
Texture	large	large	small	small
Smell	sweet	sea salt	lemony	none
Iodine	absorbs	absorbs	hardens	sits then hardens
Water	melts	sits	melts	absorbs
Vinegar	melts	absorbs	bubbles	sits

Write a paragraph about your findings.

The mystery powder was baking soda the main reason we were able to tell was that the baking soda with the vinegar made bubbles which were unique to the baking soda that reason the baking soda reacted that way was because together they create carbon dioxide.