Materials
  • Rubber gloves
  • Safety goggles
  • Fume hood
  • Empty plastic pop bottles--591 mL size
  • Thin fishing wire
  • Kitchen sponges
  • Straight pins
  • Paper clips
  • Large styrofoam cups, or if not available, paper cups--big enough to fit pop bottle inside with lots of room to spare for dry ice. Visit the setup page for a picture.
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  • Pure acetic acid (HCH3COO)
  • Pure glycerol (C3H8O3)
  • Crushed dry ice (solid CO2)--store in a cooler
  • Distilled water
  • Scissors and sharp knife
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    A note on getting materials: I did this experiment in my school’s chemistry lab, where a fume hood, gloves, safety goggles, acetic acid, and glycerin were available. For the dry ice, look under dry ice in the yellow pages of your phone book.  The rest of the materials you should find in a grocery or hardware store. Look around.