Monday, February 22, 2010

Science Sunday/Catalysts


This started out as a simple Science experiment about melting ice. What we used:

4 ice cubes

1 controlled: just in room temperature water

3 uncontrolled: one with room temperature salt water, one with room temperature water with meat tenderizer and one with boiling hot water.

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The first discovery that we made was that the ice in the hot water melted quickly.

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The ice cubes in the room temperature water and the salt water melted at about the same rate. The salt water did melt a little quicker but not much.

The ice cube in the meat tenderizer actually did not melt hardly at all in fact it crystallized.

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Even when placed in the hot water the ice that had the meet tenderizer did not melt as fast as any of our others. Why?

Meat Tenderizer is an enzyme that works as a Catalyst. A catalyst can work in one of two ways, it can speed up the actions in some instances, and that is why it makes meat tender, by breaking down the fats that make our meat tough. While in this experiment when a catalyst is added to extreme cold it slows down the action.

Selena was pretty amazed that I could actually stop the melting of an ice cube.

For more Simple Science visit Ticia at Adventures in Mommydom.

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6 comments:

  1. This is an amazing experiment. I didn't know that meat tenderizer will be an inhibitor for melting ice. I like it how you set up your experiments.

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  2. That looks so fun- and interesting for me as well as for my kiddos! Thanks for sharing :)

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  3. Interesting to know about meat tenderizer. I had no idea!

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  4. You know I was thinking about doing an ice experiment in the summer when it's too hot to bear, and I'll have to add in what you did, because I had never heard of using meat tenderizer before. How cool is that?

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  5. I didn't know about the meat tenderizer! Looks like you taught everyone something this week!

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  6. I love your Science Sunday!
    I gave you the Beautiful Blogger award on my blog today. I really think you deserve it.

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