This document provides instructions for an experiment called "Elephant Toothpaste" which produces a foamy reaction. The supplies needed are warm water, yeast, food coloring, hydrogen peroxide at 3% or 6% concentration, dish soap, and an empty plastic bottle. The instructions describe combining these ingredients in steps: adding food coloring and dish soap to hydrogen peroxide in the bottle, then adding a mixture of warm water and yeast. This causes a foamy reaction to occur due to the hydrogen peroxide decomposing and the yeast and soap catalyzing bubble production. The foam produced is greater using 6% hydrogen peroxide compared to 3%.

1. EXPERIMENT

2. ELEPHANT
TOOTHPASTE

3. Supplies Needed
 2 Tablespoons Warm Water
 1 Teaspoon Yeast
 Food Coloring
 Hydrogen Peroxide – Either 3% or 6%
 Dish Soap
 Empty Plastic Bottle

4. Supplies Needed
 2 Tablespoons Warm Water
 1 Teaspoon Yeast
 Food Coloring
 Hydrogen Peroxide – Either 3% or 6%
 Potassium Iodide
 Dish Soap
 Empty Plastic Bottle

5. WARNING
This experiment uses chemicals that can irritate
skin and damage clothes, so make sure to use lab
apron, and nitrile gloves. Avoid touching or getting
the chemicals on skin or clothing. And don't get too
close, as heat and steam can be dangerous.

6. Step 1 – Combine two
tablespoons of warm water with
one teaspoon of yeast and mix
until the yeast is completely
dissolved in the water.

7. Step 2 – Pour 1/2 cup hydrogen
peroxide into the empty bottle. You’ll
see here that we have two bottles. The
bottle pictured on the left is being filled
with 3% hydrogen peroxide while the
bottle pictured on the right is filled with
6% hydrogen peroxide.

8. Step 3 – Add a few drops of food
coloring into the bottle. Take a
moment to make a few observations.
What happened when you added the
drops of food coloring?

9. Step 4 – Next, add a squirt of dish
soap into the bottle. Again, take a
moment observe what happened. Did
adding the dish soap appear to have
any effect on the liquid already in the
bottle?

10. Step 5 – Finally, pour the mixture of
water and yeast into the bottle. Watch
carefully and observe what happens.
Helpful Tip: You may need to gently
swirl the bottle in order to get the items
to completely combine. We had to do
that for the 6% hydrogen peroxide.

11. Sit back and watch what happens. Write
down your observations as you watch the
experiment. Can you describe what
happens when you add the water and yeast
mixture to the bottle. If you are using both
the 3% and the 6% hydrogen peroxide, is
there a difference between what happens?

12. WHAT'S GOING ON
Hydrogen peroxide normally decomposes
(breaks down into separate elements) and
combining it with detergent and yeast (a
catalyst) speeds up the process.
As the oxygen emanates from the reaction, it
creates bubbles. The detergent speeds up the
foaming. The reaction is "exothermic," meaning
it produces heat as well as steam.