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Ocean In A Bottle

Updated: Oct 6, 2020

Oil and Water Experiment (with your own natural blue color!)



Learn together about liquids density through a simple and easy science experiment that you can reuse again and again!


You will need:

1. Empty plastic bottle, preferably clear and not blue, with a cap.

2. Water + Blue food coloring, or ,try to make your own blue water! right here: red cabbage juice + baking soda (Science Project - Extracting Pigments From Red Cabbage)

3. Clear Baby oil.



Re Use a plastic bottle.

Fill up the bottle with a little less than 1/2 of its height with water + blue food coloring, or your red cabbage juice + baking soda, and mix to get a beautiful ocean blue color.

My boys wanted to add some salt so it would be a "real" ocean so we added some salt of course.


Now fill the other 1/2 with clear baby oil, leave a space for air so you will be able to create “waves” in your ocean later.

Replace the cap.


Take a moment to see how the the oil is floating on the blue water!

The oil is floating on water because it is less dense than water.


Gently move the bottle while holding it horizontally, Try to create saddle movements, and than rapid movements, experiment together and see how water and oil will always separate out again.



If you want to learn more about the science, here is a simple and clear explanation I found at STEM Newcastle DIY Experiments, (oil+ water+dishwashing soap science experiment)

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