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Elliot and the Surfing Scientist: Chemical catalysts

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Two men look amazed at foamy substance exploding from top of soft drink bottles
Elliot and the Surfing Scientist: Chemical catalysts

SUBJECTS:  Science

YEARS:  9–10


Have you ever heard of a catalyst?

Watch as the Surfing Scientist, Ruben Meerman, demonstrates the power of a catalyst.

He adds one to just two other ingredients to create a chemical reaction with spectacular foaming results — just like elephant toothpaste!


Things to think about

  1. 1.Some chemical reactions are very fast while others are slow. What determines the rate of chemical reaction? How many things can you think of as examples?
  2. 2.What are the three ingredients that go into elephant toothpaste? Ruben says that potassium iodide is a catalyst. What is a catalyst? What two products are created when the hydrogen peroxide breaks down? What is the name given to a chemical reaction that produces heat?
  3. 3.What does the detergent do, and what do you think would happen if the potassium iodide was added without it? Find out what happens to the potassium iodide during the reaction and which part (potassium or iodide) acts as the catalyst.
  4. 4.What is the chemical formula for hydrogen peroxide? Write down the chemical equation for the production of elephant toothpaste. Make sure that you have a balanced equation — one with the same number of each kind of atom on each side of the equation.


Production Date: 2008


Copyright

Metadata © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia Ltd 2012 (except where otherwise indicated). Digital content © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). Video © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). All images copyright their respective owners. Text © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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