[♪ INTRO]
Mmm mmm! Dinner was great!
[Squeaks squeaks]
Thanks for cooking with me, Squeaks.
[Squeaks squeaks]
And you know what I love the most after a good dinner?
Something sweet!
[Squeaks squeaks]
How about some gelatin snacks?
[Squeaks squeaks]
Yum!
[Squeaks squeaks]
Whoa, no way!
Gelatin is one of your favorite desserts?
Mine, too!
What do you like about it?
[Squeaks squeaks]
You’re right! It is really wobbly.
And so squishy!
I wonder if we could squish it through something… like a colander maybe?
[Squeaks squeaks]
Awesome! Let’s do a little experiment before dessert!
Okay! So, I’ve got our gelatin, a spoon, and a colander.
Normally, I use a colander to drain the water when I’m cooking pasta:
It has a bunch of holes in it so all the water can get out.
But let’s see if gelatin can squish through these holes!
[Squeaks squeaks]
Whoa, that’s pretty fun, isn’t it?
[Squeaks squeaks]
Squeaks wants to know if gelatin is a solid or a liquid… which is a good question!
It slices like a solid. And when you squish it, it bounces back.
But it’s also pretty easy to push through the holes in this colander,
which is a little more like a liquid than a solid.
And gelatin is pretty wet!
What if we tried this with other liquids or solids?
We already know liquid water goes through the holes when we use
the colander to make pasta.
And the pasta, which is more solid, gets stuck behind.
It seems like the gelatin is somewhere in the middle.
[Squeaks squeaks]
Oh, I love that idea!
Squeaks asked if we could try making gelatin together!
That might help us learn why it looks and moves the way it does!
Let’s do it!
Okay! Here’s everything we need!
Let’s start by looking at some of our gelatin powder!
If we look closely, we can see it’s made of these solid grains.
We’re going to mix this powder with some boiling hot water,
and stir until it’s mixed together.
It’s important to be careful with boiling water so you don’t burn yourself,
so I’ll go ahead and do this part.
Now it says to stir for a couple of minutes.
Squeaks, what do you think will happen when we mix this up?
[Squeaks squeaks]
You think the powder will disappear?
[Squeaks squeaks]
Oh, like the one time you and Jessi mixed sugar and water together
to make rock candy!
Let’s see!
Whoa! The powder looks like it’s disappearing, and the water is turning red!
Good thinking, Squeaks!
The powder is dissolving.
It’s coming apart to mix with the water.
And hot water is especially good at making things dissolve!
We’re using heat to help us make this change.
Eventually, the powder is so broken up we can’t see it anymore!
We don’t have powder and water anymore.
We have a new mixture.
Which we can see with our eyes, because the color of the water changed, didn’t it?
It was clear, and now it’s red!
[Squeaks squeaks]
It looks like all of our powder is dissolved!
Now, we need to carefully pour this mixture into the pan and let it cool in the fridge
for about four hours.
[Squeaks squeaks]
Don’t worry, Squeaks, I had some gelatin cooling in the fridge already!
[Squeaks squeaks]
But before we take a look, Squeaks:
Do you think this will be wiggly, squishy gelatin,
or just the same red water we put in the fridge?
[Squeaks squeaks]
Gelatin? Okay, let’s see!
[Squeaks squeaks]
Wow, look at that! It’s so wiggly and squishy!
It’s gelatin, just like from our dessert earlier!
We started with a solid: our powder!
Then, we dissolved that powder into water, which is a liquid.
And once we cooled our mixture in the fridge,
we ended up with this wobbly, squishy stuff!
Hey Squeaks! Can you name some other solids and liquids?
[Squeaks squeaks]
Water is a liquid.
But we can see it become a solid if we put it into the freezer.
It freezes into solid ice.
So what about our gelatin? Is it a solid or a liquid?
Well, it turns out, gelatin is a little of both!
If we could look very closely at our gelatin powder,
we’d see that the gelatin is a solid.
And it looks like a teeny spider web that’s all stretched out.
But instead of trapping insects, that web traps a bunch of tiny pieces of water.
So, you can think of our gelatin dessert as being between a solid and a liquid.
It’s called a colloid.
That’s why it’s bouncy like some solids,
but really wet and easy to squish through a colander!
And we can’t get either of our ingredients back, can we, Squeaks?
[Squeaks squeaks]
We can’t separate the water from the powder.
They’ve made a new combination. They’ve become gelatin!
Can you think of anything else that acts like both a solid and a liquid?
Have you ever played with oobleck?
What about slime?
I hope you had fun learning with us today!
If you want to see more fun episodes with me, Squeaks, and all our friends,
go ahead and hit the subscribe button – and we’ll see you next time,
here at the Fort.
[Squeaks squeaks]
[♪ OUTRO]