Electrolysis of water

The electrolysis of water happens when water (H2O) gets separated into oxygen and hydrogen atoms. In order to do this, energy must be introduced in form of electricity. Usually, this cannot happen on its own. The video below shows this reaction. We connected a 9-volt battery to two wires to supply the energy. The bubbles on the black wire are hydrogen bubbles, and the bubbles on the red wire are oxygen.

 

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making is about a girl named September who lives in Omaha, Nebraska. She goes with the Green Wind, who takes her to Fairyland, where she meets a Wyvern named A-through-L, and they have adventures together.

This book is awesome. I love the characters and the plot is good, but it is sad at some parts, such as when the Marquess locks up A-Through-L and Saturday, the Marid, and September has to circumnavigate Fairyland to rescue them.  My favorite part is when Ell (A-through-L’s nickname) shakes persimmons from a tree and September eats them.

This book has a lot of creative characters in it, such as Lye, the soap golem, and Goodbye, the witch. My favorite character was Gleam, the 100-year-old lamp. She comforted September when September was thrown in a well by Hannibal, the pair of sandals. He was my least favorite character. All in all, it was a good book.

Happy New Year!

pH Scale

The pH scale measures how acidic or basic something is. The lower the number, the more acidic it is, but the number 7 is neutral. Saliva is number 6, which is slightly acidic. That's why it can break down food. We did an experiment where we tested the acidity of different things using pH strips. We tested baking soda, lemon juice, orange juice, apple juice, beet juice, vinegar, and water. Baking soda is a base and vinegar is an acid, so when you put them together, they neutralize each other, giving off carbon dioxide, and this is what happens with a baking soda and vinegar volcano.

When solutions are more acidic, they have more positively charged Hydrogen ions in them. This means that a strong acid like battery acid would have a lot of those ions, and a weak acid like black coffee would have only a few of the ions. Basic solutions have more negatively charged Hydroxyl ions. Basic solutions, such as bleach, feel soapy.