Mystery Powder

Dear Dexter School Board,

It seems that we figured out what the mysterious powder was. My class and I work really hard trying to figure out what it was. Here are the results so I can prove to you that we figured out what the mysterious powder was.

We had to rule things in and rule things out. We put powder into liquids, and liquids into powder to see if we would get the same results, and it seems that we didn’t. Sometimes we got different results. We really had to study it, and take our time trying over and over.

We used procedures to determine if each powder was: starch- not starch, acid-not acid, crystalline or not crystalline and soluble or not soluble. These are some of the liquids that we used: vinegar, corn oil, water, alcohol, iodine, phenolphthalein and last, phenol red. We used six different powders. Some were soft, some were hard, and some were lighter than others.

One of the first things we did was feel, look and smell each powder. Of course, we couldn’t taste because we didn’t know what it was. Can you imagine if someone did that? That would be really bad. Well everyone in my class is very smart to know that would be a bad choice.

When I mixed powders with alcohol, water, vinegar and oil, I got many different reactions. These are some results that I had: it settled/ didn’t settle, moved together in a bubbled mixture, didn’t dissolve/ dissolved or sometime it would get cloudy.

The reason we picked vinegar to be one of the liquids to mix with the mystery powder was because we proved that vinegar and baking soda bubbles when mixed together. We also knew if that one of the powders mixed with phenol red, it would turn yellow if it was acid. If phenolphthalein mixed with a powder and it turned pink it would be base. If iodine mixed one of the powders and it turned blackish-bluish, it would be starch.

Here is how I know which of the six powders were in the mystery powder. First, I mixed vinegar and 10 drops of water into the mystery powder. Nothing happened. Then I noticed a little powder bubbled so I tried vinegar and mystery powder and it bubbled. Vinegar and baking soda bubbles when you mix it together so that’s how I knew that baking soda was in the mystery powder.

When I put iodine in the mystery powder, it turned blackish-bluish. When I had mixed iodine and corn starch, it turned blackish-bluish. The powder smelled like cornstarch so it had to be cornstarch. I saw little crystalline shapes in the mystery powder. I thought sugar is usually shiny and salt isn't. So I thought about it for a minute. However, when I mixed phenolphthalein and salt, it turned pink. The result occurred with the mystery powder. What was in the mystery powder? It was baking soda, salt and corn starch.

What could have happened is that overnight, the grocery store threw out cornstarch, salt and baking soda. That day was really windy and it flew to the school playground.

Well I think this proves what the mysterious powder is and how it got to the school. Thank you for calling us and trusting we could figure out what the powder was. Good luck with everything

Sincerely,

Aline