27 Jun Have fun with Chemistry in our chemistry tuition

When you are going through the daily struggle of academic studies to ultimately reach out to your goal of acing A or O level chemistry exam, you may have definitely lost sight of the bright side of this subject. But just mugging up your notes all day round will eventually cause draining of your brain and you may ultimately lose all the enthusiasm. At Miracle Learning Centre, one of the top chemistry tuitions in Singapore, the learning process is completely different from others where we provide our students with real-life examples to enjoy the subject while learning the tough concepts of the subject at the very same time. So here we are with some of the amazing life hacks which can prove useful for you.

Battery Bounce Test

Do you have some batteries lying around in a box or drawer for a long time and you are not actually sure about that if they still have some juice left in them or completely drained? In the case of alkaline batteries, there are two chambers among which one contains a gel mixture of zinc and potassium hydroxide, and the other contains manganese dioxide. When the gel is discharged by the battery in one compartment then it gradually changes into ceramic. You need to pick up the battery about which you are not sure about and drop it over a hard surface. If the battery gets bounced then the gel present in the battery has turned into a ceramic and is completely dead. And if not then it will simply drop and rolls. But remember to not drop it from a very high height as that can damage it.

Make your Cocoa Mix Richer and Smoother

You may have purchased the instant hot cocoa powder which you need to mix with water or milk for creating hot cocoa. But the resulting drink, unfortunately, is not what you have wished for as it turns out to be very thins and bland and can have lumps which never goes away no matter how much you stir it. But with the help of chemistry, you can fix these problems.

Get the lumps out

In an instant cocoa mix, there is a lot of starch which is basically long, branching trains of sugar molecules. The starch exists within the powdery mix in small granules which eventually grows bigger when water is added. The water gets absorbed and expands. The expanding starch molecules sometimes form a waterproof wall around other starch molecules that are still dry. These huge water-logged starch molecules prevent the moisture from reaching the dry bits of powder inside the lump. So for that, you need to crush those lumps with a spoon and open them up.  So what you need to do is instead of pouring all the water into your cocoa, you need to add just a little bit and then mix it to make a thick paste. This way it will be much easier to stir out any lumps. After that put the remaining water.

Make your Cocoa Smoother

You will find scum at the bottom of the cup which actually exists because your instant cocoa powder has some naturally occurring fats in addition to the starch. This fat does not mix well with water and you will need an emulsifier. It is actually a chemical compound that mixes with hydrophilic and hydrophobic molecules. In whole milk, there is casein which is a natural emulsifier so you can use the whole mile as a solvent for your instant hot cocoa mix.

Thickening of Cocoa

Now if you are not satisfied with the thickness then you can use basic science here. Use cornstarch to thicken up your cocoa. It will trap water and expand and make the mixture thicker.

How to remove Silver Tarnish?

Is there some genuine silverware lying around your house? Have they become tarnished over the period of time? Well, there are nice alternatives which you can use instead of spending on expensive products to polish the silverware. Get hold of some baking soda and aluminum foil. Take a bowl of hot water, add several strips of the foil and dump it in two tablespoons of baking soda and salt. Now place the tarnished silverware in the bowl and make them touch the foil and see the magic.

If you loved this way of learning then come join us at Miracle Learning Centre where learning chemistry is all about fun.

Check on our chemistry tuition courses and exciting way to learn new things: miraclelearning@gmail.com