An Inexpensive Indicator for Acids and Baths

Authors

Susan Christensen, Emporia State University
Yvonne Smith, Emporia State University

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Is your shampoo acidic, neutral or basic? Put more simply: what is the pH level of your shampoo? Have you ever wished to find the correct answer to that question? If so, you can repeat the experiment that we did to find the pH, not only of your shampoo, but of many other things as well.

This project was completed for GB 303, Field and Lab Biology for Elementary Teachers, at Emporia State University. While looking through a book on teaching science to elementary children (Schmidt and Rockcastle 1982), one of us developed the idea of using red cabbage juice as a pH indicator. It seemed to be an interesting experiment, even a colorful one. Our professor suggested trying to match the colors obtained by testing with a pH meter to specific Crayola^TM Crayons (Robbins personal communication).

Publication Date

Autumn 1992

Journal Title

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

Volume

29

Issue

2

First Page

5

Last Page

7

Copyright

© Copyright 1992 by the Iowa Academy of Science

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

Recommended Citation

Christensen, Susan and Smith, Yvonne (1992) "An Inexpensive Indicator for Acids and Baths," Iowa Science Teachers Journal: Vol. 29: No. 2, Article 3.
Available at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/istj/vol29/iss2/3