So, do you think water puts out fires? You wrong! water can ignite fire.

Mixture: ammonium nitrate + ammonium chloride + iodine + zinc dust.

When a drop or two of water is added, the ammonium nitrate forms nitric acid which reacts with the zinc to produce hydrogen and heat. The heat vaporizes the iodine (giving off purple smoke) and the ammonium chloride (becomes purple when mixed with iodine vapor). It will ignite the hydrogen and begin
burning.


Ammonium nitrate: 8 grams
Ammonium choride: 1 gram
Zinc dust : 8 grams
Iodine crystals : 1 gram

Face Paint
1. Break out a muffin tin or empty egg carton.
2. Spoon some cold cream into the tin or carton. The amount you use is up to you. It will depend on how much paint you need in the end.
3. Mix 1 to 2 drops of various colors food coloring into each cup. Feel free to mix colors to create your own hues.

Naturan Paint
1. Collect your pigment - try using chalk dust, talc, paprika, turmeric, chilli powder etc.
2. Add a little bit of gum arabic to the powder and mix to a paste
3. Thin with water to use, or let it harden and use later by re-mixing with a wet brush

Use your imagination and experiment, see what you can find to paint with! Grind materials down with a pestle and mortar or a plastic bag and a rolling pin, as fine as you can get it.
Try using your paints on various surfaces - make a card with your paints and then you can proudly tell the recipient all about how to make paint aswell.

Kid-Friendly Watercolors
1. Decide which colors you want to paint with and find a powdered drink mix that matches that color.
2. Empty the different colored powdered drink mixes into their own cups. If you're feeling adventurous, mix some of the colors together.
3. Add 2 tbsp. of warm water to each cup and stir until completely mixed. The paint's now ready to hit the paper.

Easy Face Paint
1. Separate colors with a muffin tin or an egg carton.
2. Place a spoonful of cold cream into each cup.
3. Add 1 or 2 drops of different colors of food coloring to the cold cream, and stir.
4. Apply the face paint using a clean paintbrush or cotton swabs.


Spiffy-Sniffy Watercolors
1. Use a small cup for each color.
2. Mix one package of powdered drink mix (Kool-Aid) with 2 tablespoons of warm water for each color.
3. Stir until the powder dissolves.
4. Once all of the colors are prepared, use a clean paintbrush to paint sweet-smelling pictures.

Window Paint
Turn your windows, patio doors and mirrors into works of art.
Mix together equal parts dishwashing liquid and washable liquid paint or powdered tempera. Children will love the process of painting and adults will love the end result: the paint wipes off easily with a dry paper towel.

Foamy Bath Paint
1. simply mix together shaving cream with a drop of food coloring.
2. Dip a paintbrush, or better yet, your fingers, into the mix
3. start creating!


Water-Based Paint
1. Choose a dry pigment to make into paint. Put a small amount onto a flat surface.
2. Use a palette knife to make a hole in the center of the pigment.
3. Pour a little water into the hole. Too much water will make the paint runny, so start with a very small amount of water and add more as needed.
4. Blend the water and pigment together with the knife. You want to create a smooth, evenly distributed paste.
5. Add the paste to a water-based paint binder. You can choose between acrylic, casein, egg tempera, watercolors or gouache. You can also use the paste to tint plaster or concrete. Now you're ready to paint.

Original on http://chemistry.about.com

A liquid magnet or ferrofluid is a colloidal mixture of magnetic particles (~10 nm in diameter) in a liquid carrier. The carrier contains a surfactant to prevent the particles from sticking together. Ferrofluids can be suspended in water or in an organic fluid. A typical ferrofluid is about 5% magnetic solids, 10% surfactant, and 85% carrier, by volume. One type of ferrofluid you can make uses magnetite for the magnetic particles, oleic acid as the surfactant, and kerosene as the carrier fluid to suspend the particles.

Several people have asked me if they can make substitutions for the oleic acid and the kerosene. The answer is yes, though changing the chemicals will change the characteristics of the ferrofluid somewhat. You can try other surfactants and other organic solvents. The surfactant must be soluble in the solvent.


When no external magnetic field is present the fluid is not magnetic and the orientation of the magnetite particles is random. However, when an external magnetic field is applied, the magnetic moments of the particles align with the magnetic field lines. When the magnetic field is removed, the particles return to random alignment. These properties can be used to make a liquid that changes its density depending on the strength of the magnetic field and that can form fantastic shapes.

You can find ferrofluids in high-end speakers and in the laser heads of some CD and DVD players. They are used in low friction seals for rotating shaft motors and computer disk drive seals. You could open a computer disk drive or a speaker to get to the liquid magnet, but it's pretty easy (and fun) to make your own ferrofluid.

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Material

Safety Considerations
This procedure uses flammable substances and generates heat and toxic fumes. Please wear safety glasses and skin protection, work in a well-ventilated area, and be familiar with the safety data for your chemicals. Ferrofluid can stain skin and clothing. Keep it out of reach of children and pets. Contact your local poison control center if you suspect ingestion (risk of iron poisoning; carrier is kerosene).

Materials
oleic acid (may be found in some pharmacies, craft, and health food stores)
household ammonia
PCB etchant (ferric chloride solution) - from an electronics store or you can make your ferric chloride or ferrous chloride solution or you can use magnetite or magnetic hematite powder if you have either of those minerals handy (magnetic hematite is an inexpensive mineral used in jewelry)
distilled water
steel wool
a magnet
kerosene
heat source
2 beakers or measuring cups
a plastic syringe or medicine cup (something to measure 10 ml)
coffee filters

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procedures

The magnetic particles in this ferrofluid consist of magnetite. If you aren't starting with magnetite, then the first step is to prepare it. This is done by reducing the ferric chloride (FeCl3) in PCB etchant to ferrous chloride (FeCl2). Ferric chloride is then reacted to produce magnetite. Commercial PCB etchant is usually 1.5M ferric chloride, to yield 5 grams of magnetite. If you are using a stock solution of ferric chloride, follow the procedure using a 1.5M solution.

1.Pour 10 ml of PCB etchant and 10 ml of distilled water in a glass cup.

2.Add a piece of steel wool to the solution. Mix the liquid until you get a color change. The solution should become bright green (green is the FeCl2).

3. Filter the liquid through filter paper or a coffee filter. Keep the liquid; discard the filter.

4. Precipitate the magnetite out of the solution. Add 20 ml of PCB etchant (FeCl3) to the green solution (FeCl2). If you are using stock solutions of ferric and ferrous chloride, keep in mind FeCl3 and FeCl2 react in a 2:1 ratio.

5. Stir in 150 ml of ammonia. The magnetite, Fe3O4, will fall out of solution. This is the product you want to collect.

The next step is to take the magnetite and suspend it in the carrier solution.

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The magnetic particles need to be coated with a surfactant so that they won't stick together when magnetized. Finally, the coated particles will be suspended in a carrier so the magnetic solution will flow like a liquid. Since you are going to be working with ammonia and kerosense, prepare the carrier in a well-ventilated area, outdoors or under a fume hood.

1 Heat the magnetite solution to just below boiling.

2 Stir in 5 ml oleic acid. Maintain the heat until the ammonia evaporates (approximately an hour).

3 Remove the mixture from heat and allow it to cool. The oleic acid reacts with ammonia to form ammonium oleate. Heat allows the oleate ion to enter solution, while the ammonia escapes as a gas (which is why you need ventilation). When the oleate ion binds to a magnetite particle it is reconverted to oleic acid.

4 Add 100 ml kerosene to the coated magnetite suspension. Stir the suspension until most of the black color has been transferred into the kerosene. Magnetite and oleic acid are insoluble in water, while oleic acid is soluble in kerosene. The coated particles will leave the aqueous solution in favor of the kerosene. If you make a substitution for the kerosene, you want a solvent with the same property: the ability to dissolve the oleic acid but not uncoated magnetite.

5Decant and save the kerosene layer. Discard the water. The magnetite plus oleic acid plus kerosene is the ferrofluid.


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Ferrofluid is very strongly attracted to magnets, so maintain a barrier between the liquid and the magnet (e.g., sheet of glass). Avoid splashing the liquid. Both kerosene and iron are toxic, so do not ingest the ferrofluid or allow skin contact (don't stir it with a finger or play with it).

Here are some ideas for activities involving your liquid magnet ferrofluid. You can:

-Use a strong magnet to float a penny on top of the ferrofluid.

- Use magnets to drag the ferrofluid up the sides of a container.
- Bring a magnet close to the ferrofluid to see spikes form, following the lines of the magnetic field.
Explore the shapes you can form using a magnet and the ferrofluid. Store your liquid magnet away from heat and flame. If you need to dispose of your ferrofluid at some point, dispose of it the way you would dispose of kerosene. Have fun!