Make a Funky Raisin Disco!

In this experiment you can make raisins party on down ... (Always remember to ask your parent or guardian to help you.)

What you'll need: For this experiment you'll need the following materials: 1 drinking glass or clear plastic beaker Some raisins Carbonated (fizzy) water

Step 1 Half fill your glass beaker or cup with the carbonated water.	Step 2 Drop 3 or 4 raisins into your glass - watch them sink to the bottom.  The party is about to start!	Step 3 Watch your raisins carefully for the next few minutes.  What do you see happening to them?  Also look at the bubbles around the bottom of the glass and around the raisins - how are the bubbles affecting the raisins?

What should happen? You should see that the raisins begin to dance around at the bottom of the glass.  Why do you think this is happening?

Why does this happen?

Water is made fizzy by dissolving carbon dioxide (CO₂), a gas, into the water.  We call this carbonated water (because the CO₂ is dissolved into it.)  When you open a bottle of carbonated water and pour it into a glass, the CO₂ begins to collect together to form bubbles of the gas, which then rise to the surface of the water and escape into the air.

The raisins you have put into the fizzy water collect these bubbles on them.  When enough collect on a raisin it will lift the raisin up, but eventually the bubbles will escape into the air, and the raisin will fall back to the bottom of the glass again.