I held the first ever liquid stacking world championships last night. There was only one entry so I guess I won by default. In a very profound way I am also the loser.
Despite the lack of cheering hordes (Gemma occasionally came in to check on progress but beyond that it was just me and the spider in the kitchen) I'm going to give a blow by blow recount of this exciting occasion.
I had no real idea how feasable liquid stacking actually is, or how gentle I'd have to be to get it to work so to start with did something that I was pretty sure would work:
On the bottom we have green washing up liquid, followed by white vinegar and then olive oil. I was expecting the vinegar to sit on top of the oil, but it sank straight through and formed a neat layer on between the soap and oil.
I next tried to add a layer of red using some wine. I expected that since alcohol is less dense than water the wine would float on top of the oil but it too just fell straight through! Olive oil is surprisingly underdense.
(I am not good at using the camera)
At least I have determined that wine is less dense than vinegar. Next up I wanted to get a bit more ambitious so I threw this stack away and started afresh using the densest liquid in the entire household: Treacle!. Here is the treacle/washing up liquid system:
Next up I added the oil and vinegar, bringing us back to four levels (here), before trying something new: Soy sauce. The density of the Soy sauce was pretty surprising, it fell all the way through to below the washing up liquid, where it stayed:
The addition of the red wine (I slipped and the red wine got poured a little violently so mixed a bit with the vinegar) brought us up to the current "liquid stacking world record" of six liquids:
If I had any methylated spirits around I'm pretty sure I could have floated that on top of the oil and achieved my original goal of seven liquids.
After seeing how easy this is, I reckon I can stack a dozen liquids. Milk, Thick bleach, rubbing alcohol, honey, coffee, cream, the possibilities are endless. I can't help but feel that I have tapped into a new source of amusement here.
Despite the lack of cheering hordes (Gemma occasionally came in to check on progress but beyond that it was just me and the spider in the kitchen) I'm going to give a blow by blow recount of this exciting occasion.
I had no real idea how feasable liquid stacking actually is, or how gentle I'd have to be to get it to work so to start with did something that I was pretty sure would work:
On the bottom we have green washing up liquid, followed by white vinegar and then olive oil. I was expecting the vinegar to sit on top of the oil, but it sank straight through and formed a neat layer on between the soap and oil.
I next tried to add a layer of red using some wine. I expected that since alcohol is less dense than water the wine would float on top of the oil but it too just fell straight through! Olive oil is surprisingly underdense.
(I am not good at using the camera)
At least I have determined that wine is less dense than vinegar. Next up I wanted to get a bit more ambitious so I threw this stack away and started afresh using the densest liquid in the entire household: Treacle!. Here is the treacle/washing up liquid system:
Next up I added the oil and vinegar, bringing us back to four levels (here), before trying something new: Soy sauce. The density of the Soy sauce was pretty surprising, it fell all the way through to below the washing up liquid, where it stayed:
The addition of the red wine (I slipped and the red wine got poured a little violently so mixed a bit with the vinegar) brought us up to the current "liquid stacking world record" of six liquids:
If I had any methylated spirits around I'm pretty sure I could have floated that on top of the oil and achieved my original goal of seven liquids.
After seeing how easy this is, I reckon I can stack a dozen liquids. Milk, Thick bleach, rubbing alcohol, honey, coffee, cream, the possibilities are endless. I can't help but feel that I have tapped into a new source of amusement here.
