Daily Discovery: Walking Rainbows

Put your lab coat on; we’re getting scientific! With this experiment, discover how colors interact to form rainbows and observe the natural process of capillary motion in action!

Supplies:

• Time
• 6 full sheets of paper towels
• 6 mason jars (clear if possible). If you don’t have jars use cups or bowls
• Red, blue, and yellow food coloring

Instructions:

Before you get started, review the color wheel on page two and remember the colors you need to form a rainbow. Feel free to experiment to see how mixing certain colors will create different colors. Together, determine how you will create a rainbow using only red, blue and yellow.

1. Fill three jars full of water. Add red food coloring to one, blue
   to another and yellow to another, 4-6 drops each.
2. To form a circle place the empty jars between the red, yellow
   and blue jars.
3. Roll each sheet of paper towel into tubes. Drape one side into
   a full jar and the other into an empty jar until each jar is
   connected with paper towels.
4. Start your timer to see how long it takes for the colored water
   to move from one jar to the next. Water will begin absorbing
   right away, but the whole process will take around 48 hours,
   so check back every few hours to see how it has changed.