Frosty Window Project
Gauri Girirajan, Matteo Simamora, and Alan Chen
Special Effect
Our special effect was to make a window frosty without actually freezing the window. We did some research on how to make fake frost on a window. Our recipe worked well, and the frost effect appeared on the window very clearly. We filmed this, then thought of a creative way to present it. We thought of Harry Potter and him using his wand to try and burn the window, but he accidentally holds the wand the wrong way and he instead freezes the window. We used a time lapse to make the window look like it froze immediatley so it looked like it was a spell from Harry Potter's wand, but that didn't turn out too well, but with a few special effects, we still made our clip pretty good.
Chemistry Connections
We needed a lot of chemistry skills to make a window frosty. We needed lots of chemistry to do this because this project needed exact measurements, and if we messed up just a little bit, the whole thing wouldn't work. First we needed to mix 1/3 cup of Epsom salt with 1/2 cup hot water. . We had to stir using a stirring rod until the salt had dissolved. Then we took one teaspoon of dish soap and added it to the mixture. After that, we took a paper towel, dipped in the mixture, and dabbed the mixture onto a window. After a while, the mixture began to dry on the window, and the frost effect appeared! Most of the recipes we researched required the ingredient Epsom salt. Another name for Epsom salt is Magnesium Sulfate. The movement of molecules changed when the liquid was drying. The molecules went from moving really fast to really slow.
The Mixture
This is what the mixture of Epsom salt, dish soap, and water looked like.
Applying the Mixture
We had to use a paper towel to dab the mixture onto the window.
Drying Mixture
This is a picture about halfway until the final product.
Safety Precautions
When doing this experiment, we needed to make sure we didn't hurt ourselves. We were using a glass stirring rod, and if we dropped it, we could shatter it and cut ourselves. Also, we were working with hot water, and we had to make sure we did not burn ourselves or someone else. Finally, we couldn't get the mixture into our eyes, nose, or mouth, because that could potentially harm us. So, we were extra careful with glass stirring rod and handled it with extreme care. For the hot water, we used gloves to handle the heated container and poured hot water out of it. Of course, we just were careful to keep this mixture away from our faces and made sure we didn't spill it on them floor.
Chemistry behind our experiment
When you are doing a scientific experiment, you have to understand how it works. The way our experiment worked was that when you mixed the hot water with the Epsom salt and it dissolved, and then dabbed the hot mixture onto a cold window, the hot water evaporated and the Epsom salt stayed there. We added the dish soap to make the process faster, but we also could have used any type of soap. The main part of this experiment was that the Epsom salt was left there after the water dried out.