Tuesday, July 20, 2010

How to tell the difference between an acid and a base

Both of the boys are attending summer day camps this week at Penn State. Trevor is attending a science camp and Devin is attending an art camp.

This morning, John quizzed Trevor on acids and bases because that is what on the agenda at his camp today. Trevor came up with an example of each. Maple syrup is a base and lemon juice is an acid.

One way you can tell the difference is if you get lemon juice in your eye, it stings. And, if you somehow "randomly" (that's what he said) got maple syrup in your eye, it wouldn't sting.

I sure hope he's wearing safety glasses today.

For the record, he insisted that he knew that this is not the right way to test the acidity of an item. He strongly insisted, in fact. But, I still thought it was pretty funny.

Here are some pictures from his summer camp.

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