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Materials:
-Salt
-One 9-volt battery
-Two spoons
-A medium-sized glass bowl
Steps:
1. Fill the bowl with warm tap water, and stir in a spoonful or so of the salt.
2. Place the two spoons in the water, being careful not to let the two spoons touch each other.
3. Hold the ends of the two spoons to the battery connectors, one spoon on each connector.
4. Within a few seconds, you should see tiny bubbles coming off of the spoons. You will also notice
what looks like smoke coming off the water.
5. After holding them in a minute or so, you should be able to see the water begin to turn murky
yellow.
6. After several minutes, the water starts to turn dark green.
That means, two sodium chloride molecules (which is the salt) plus two dihydrogen
monoxide molecules (also known as water) becomes one chlorine molecule, one hydrogen molecule,
and two molecules of sodium hydroxide (which is also known as lye). So in our experiment, the bubbles
were hydrogen, the "smoke" coming off the water was chlorine gas, and the yellow color of the water
was the sodium, in the form of lye.