The Science Experiments

My family must've been feeling very scientific yesterday, because they came up with a couple of interesting experiments.

"Mama," my eight-year-old son said.  "Can we have some sand?"

"What for, Bubba?" I asked. 

"You'll see."

I got some sand.  My kids put it out under the hot sun and got a magnifying glass. It looked like they were trying to direct a sunbeam onto the pile of sand.  "Um, what exactly are you doing?" I asked.  "Starting a fire?"

"No, Mama.  We're trying to make the sand really hot to turn it into glass."

I had to explain that the little sand to glass process was something that should take place in a furnace and not in the middle of my driveway.

Fast forward about an hour.

"Do you want to see my experiment?" my husband asked.

I couldn't wait to see what he was up to.  I followed him out to the middle of my driveway. (Yes, another experiment in my driveway.)  I saw a bucket with bubbling fluid in it.  "What is that?"

"Battery acid," my husband explained.  "I'm neutralizing it by mixing it with four boxes of baking soda."

"Oh," I said.  "So what does it do - turn into water?"

"Actually, yes," my husband replied.

My son heard that and put his two cents in. "So can we drink it when it's done neutralizing?"

"Absolutely not!" I said.  "I don't care how neutralized it gets.  Nobody is ingesting something that was once battery acid!"

Oy gewalt!