How Things Work 3-minute video · ages 4-8 · free coloring page
How does dry ice make fog?
Bubble, bubble! Spooky fog! How does dry ice make all that fog?
3 min
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Free coloring page
The scene from the video as a coloring page, plus the three-sentence answer, the experiment, and a QR code back to this page. One sheet, US Letter, black and white.
The answer in three parts
Why?
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Dry ice is not frozen water.
It's frozen carbon dioxide, the same gas you breathe out. When it warms up, it never makes a puddle. It skips the water part and turns straight into a gas. That's why it's called dry.
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The gas is invisible.
You can't see carbon dioxide at all. So the white fog is not the gas. Then what is it?
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The fog is millions of tiny water drops.
The air all around us is full of tiny water bits, too small to see. When the super cold gas touches them, they get cold fast and huddle together into tiny drops. Millions of tiny drops make a white cloud. That's the fog!
For grown-ups: Dry ice is so cold it can hurt skin like a burn. Only grown-ups touch it, with thick gloves. Never put it in your mouth or in a drink. Never close it in a bottle with a lid, because the gas needs room. And use it where fresh air can come in.
Dry ice rules
- Grown-ups onlywith thick gloves on
- Not in your mouthor in a drink
- No lidsthe gas needs room
- Fresh airwhere fresh air can come in
A tiny experiment
Try it!
Freezer fog
You need: a freezer, a warm day and a grown-up
- On a warm day, open the freezer door with a grown-up.
- Watch closely.
- Do you see a little white mist roll out and sink down?
What happened? Those are tiny water drops too! No dry ice needed.
Did you know?
Why does the fog roll down to the floor, instead of floating up? The cold gas is heavier than the air around it. So it sinks and spreads along the ground, like a slow, white river.
You've seen this trick before! When you breathe out on a cold day, or when the bathroom mirror gets foggy, tiny water bits get cold and huddle into little drops.
Your guide in this video
I'm Droppy, a little water drop. And that white fog? It's millions of tiny water drops!
Droppy is a little blue water drop. Droppy also shows you why the bathroom mirror gets foggy.
For grown-ups
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