We did a science experiment that included nail polish remover and styrofoam cups. The result was supposed to be bubbling and disintegrating.
First we tried styrofoam bowls and poured our nail polish remover over them but nothing happened. Our guess was that the bowls were plasticized so the nail polish remover couldn't get inside the bowls.
We tried again with styrofoam cups but it didn't work.
Next we tried packaging styrofoam but that didn't work either.
We took another piece of packaging styrofoam and tried pouring gasoline over it as the science book had said it might have the same reaction. But still nothing happened.
Our guess is that the nail polish remover didn't work is because it wasn't pure acetone. My guess is that we need pure styrofoam with no plastic coating.
I would like to try this experiment again with non plasticized styrofoam and pure acetone. My hypothesis is that the experiment would work better and it would bubble and disintegrate.
I think it would be fun to be a scientist who does experiments like this all the time but I also think it would be annoying because I would have to test the hypothesis, then try it out with different materials until finally getting the experiment right.
Thank you for explaining what you did and your thoughts about why it did not work. It's good to evaluate the possible reasons why something does not work as expected. Isn't it a good thing that some scientists did not give up after their first attempt? We have benefited from their perseverence.
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