More Steps on ‘Color Changing Leaves’ Experiment (Color Changing Leaves continued)
6. If the water cools off, replace it with more hot water. Keep some hot water on hand. You can also consider having two pans of hot water so you can just switch the jars from one pan to another when one cools off.
7. During the times that you are not moving your jars, begin cutting the filter paper. You will need one strip for each jar.
8. After half an hour has passed, take the jars out of the water and remove their aluminum covers.
9. Place a strip of filter paper into each jar. Make sure one end touches the alcohol, while the other end goes past the rim of the jar. Do not let the entire piece of filter paper fall into the jar. You can secure it with some tape.
10. You will see the colors begin traveling up the paper. Leave the paper in the jars for thirty minutes or when the colors have traveled all the way up the paper.
11. Take the paper and let them dry. What colors do you see?
Because alcohol evaporates faster than water, the liquid begins to evaporate as soon as you remove the aluminum foil covering. The colors that are left behind on your paper are the colors found in the leaves, apart from green. You may have yellows, oranges, or reds on your filter paper. See which plants gave youwhich colors. Come autumn, you will be able to predict which colors will appear on which plants or trees. Remember that browns, oranges and yellows are characteristic of carotenoids, while reds and purples are characteristic of anthocyanins.
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