Step-by-step tutorial
Step 1
Gather your materials, put your safety goggles on, and prepare your space for the mess!
Step 2
Pour ½ cup of hydrogen peroxide into the bottle.
Step 3
Pour in 1 tablespoon of liquid dish soap. Swirl the bottle around to mix it together.
Step 4
Add 8-10 drops of food coloring.
Step 5
In a separate small bowl, mix 1 tablespoon of dry yeast and the 3 tablespoons of warm water together for about 30 seconds.
Step 6
Put the funnel in the bottle and pour in the yeast/water mixture. Watch the elephant toothpaste erupt!
Warning
Please don’t touch the foam! You just created an exothermic reaction, which means you’ve made a lot of heat. Even once it’s cooled down, it’s best to not touch the foam in case not all of the hydrogen peroxide has broken down.
Step 7
The final result!
This experiment is not only fun to watch, but it's also a great way to teach kids about chemical reactions and the importance of safety when working with chemicals. Make sure to wear goggles and gloves, and never ingest hydrogen peroxide.
So, what are you waiting for? Gather up your materials and get ready for a foam-tastic time with Elephant Toothpaste!
Learn more
So, what’s going on here? This elephant toothpaste foams up all over the place because of a special organism called yeast. Yeast is a type of fungus, and it’s normally used by people to make bread rise and make drinks ferment. For the elephant toothpaste, we use it to make all the bubbles for the foam. A little bit of warm water is all that’s needed to get the yeast ready to work. Yeast makes a special molecule that reacts with hydrogen peroxide. Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is like a molecule of water that has one extra oxygen on it. When the yeast reacts with the hydrogen peroxide, it strips off one of those oxygen atoms and turns the hydrogen peroxide into water. H2O2 becomes H2O + oxygen gas. The yeast does this reaction VERY quickly - one yeast can break apart over a million H2O2 molecules in one second. As all that oxygen gets released by the yeast, it bubbles into the dish soap and makes a thick foam. The speed of the reaction pushes the foam out of the bottle!