baking soda

vinegar (or lemon juice)

dish soap

food coloring (optional)

tall jar, glass, vase or similar

tray or sink

Procedure:  Set jar in the tray or sink (to catch the slime).  Fill your jar about 1/3 full with vinegar.  Add about a tablespoon of dish soap and the food coloring of your choice (if any).  Quickly dump in about the same amount of baking soda as you used of vinegar.  Watch your slime ooze!  This is an experiment, so the ingredients used in various proportions will do various things.  Have fun with it!  There is no one right way to do this.

The Science:  Vinegar is an acid; baking soda is a base.  When combined in a solution, they cause a chemical reaction that gives off carbdon dioxide gas (the same gas humans exhale).  The dish soap makes the solution thicker and appear to ooze, but does play a role in the reaction.

• Acid:  a compound usually having a sour taste and capable of neutralizing alkalis and reddening blue litmus paper, containing hydrogen that can be replaced by a metal or an electropositive group to form a salt, or containing an atom that can accept a pair of electrons from a base. Acids are proton donors that yield hydronium ions in water solution, or electron-pair acceptors that combine with electron-pair donors or bases.  (Dictionary.com)

• Base:  a) a compound that reacts with an acid to form a salt, as ammonia, calcium hydroxide, or certain nitrogen-containing organic compounds. b) the hydroxide of a metal or of an electropositive element or group. c) a group or molecule that takes up or accepts protons. d) a molecule or ion containing an atom with a free pair of electrons that can be donated to an acid; an electron-pair donor. e) any of the purine and pyrimidine compounds found in nucleic acids: the purines adenine and guanine and the pyrimidines cytosine, thymine, and uracil. (Dictionary.com)

• Solution:  a homogeneous, molecular mixture of two or more substances. (Dictionary.com)

• Reaction:  a chemical change.  (Dictionary.com)