Bleach and food coloring

[Dragon Lady]

HELP!

Ok, so for sharing time tomorrow we're doing an object lesson on repentance. I've been hoping to get this sharing time, even though it wasn't on my typical week, and due to really odd circumstances, I did! You wouldn't believe how excited I was based on my lack of preparation all week, though. [sigh] Anyway, so I'm practicing the object lesson right now AND IT'S NOT WORKING.

It's basically this: http://www.ehow.com/how_5875984_neutral ... ience.html

Jar of water, add food coloring, then add bleach and viola! The water is clear again. I thought this would be an awesome object lesson that kids would remember. I was so excited that the Church actually suggested doing this.

But as I'm practicing it, it's not working! I've tried adding more bleach. I've tried adding baking soda. The best I've gotten is to greatly lighten the color, but not get rid of it completely. Now I'm in an "it's too good to be true" mood and I'm rather upset about this. Help, oh ye wise ones! I've got church at 9 am, so I need help and fast. How do I get this water to be clear again? (For what it's worth, I've done one drop only of blue and red. In different batches. Never mixed.)

[Dead Cat]

Maybe you could put the food coloring on a piece of cloth and wash it out of that.

[thebigcheese]

Huh. I've seen that object lesson done before, and it worked perfectly. Maybe you're using a weird brand of food coloring?

[TheAnswerIs42]

I'm with thebighcheese. It worked for me when I tried it years ago, after mucho stirring.

[Dragon Lady]

Claudio said it didn't work perfectly in his Primary last week. So it's not just me. And my food coloring is just normal McCormick. So it can't be that weird.

I have a science experiment going on in my kitchen right now and by far the best results are with yellow. Clears it up almost instantly. So that's probably what I'll use. I'm just nervous about possible pee jokes.

In interesting news, putting bleach in with green food coloring turns it blue. So I guess what we learn here is that bleach is great about sucking the yellow out of water, but not so much the blue or red. Which is a shame. Because yellow is the hardest to see at a distance.

[thebigcheese]

I'm just nervous about possible pee jokes.

Heh heh. Good luck with that. What age do you teach?

[Dragon Lady]

I'm just nervous about possible pee jokes.

Heh heh. Good luck with that. What age do you teach?

I teach Sharing Time. So, uh… age 3-12. (Though split. One group is 3-7 and the other is 7-12.)

[Whistler]

vinegar?

[Dragon Lady]

I finally just did it with yellow. It worked wonderfully. And I didn't even hear any pee jokes. And it had the WOW factor I was going for. Eyes popped, jaws dropped, hearts were touched. Probably one of my favorite sharing times yet.

Sometimes, I'll be honest, I love being in Primary. No speculations, only pure doctrine, and you get to do awesome games and object lessons.

[Rifka]

I've seen people attempt that object lesson and fail, too. My mom told me that usually if it isn't working it's because you're not putting in enough bleach. Apparently it takes a TON of bleach to get rid of the food coloring. So, if anyone is thinking of doing it in the future, you might want to only put in one drop of food coloring and then use a lot of bleach.
Or you could try the method my dad did for FHE once-- let us color on the wall with permanent marker and then tried covering it up with paint. Too bad he didn't realize at the time that permanent marker bleeds through paint. I heard it took a LOT of paint to cover up that mistake! Oh the irony.

[thebigcheese]

Or you could try the method my dad did for FHE once-- let us color on the wall with permanent marker and then tried covering it up with paint. Too bad he didn't realize at the time that permanent marker bleeds through paint. I heard it took a LOT of paint to cover up that mistake! Oh the irony.

Oh gosh. I used to work as a wall painter for on-campus housing, and this makes me cringe a little. Apparently, many of our freshmen friends think it's cool to defile their dorm walls with Sharpie messages, and we had to paint over it. Permanent marker absolutely SUCKS to paint over. Most of the time, you'll need 8 or 10 coats of paint to cover it because the ink bleeds through endlessly. Primer usually covers a lot better, but most people don't know that. Your poor parents...

(And then there was the time when one entire hall of girls decided to decorate the walls with fake blood for Halloween. We spent a few weeks repainting their entire hallway. Good job, ladies!)

[NerdGirl]

The biggest failure of that object lesson that I've ever seen was when a gospel principles teacher put an entire bottle of red food coloring (bigger than the little bottle you get in the 4-pack, maybe 3 ounces) into a glass of water and then instead of mixing in something to turn it clear again, he just drank the whole glass! I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to consume that much red dye in under a minute.

[UnluckyStuntman]

The biggest failure of that object lesson that I've ever seen was when a gospel principles teacher put an entire bottle of red food coloring (bigger than the little bottle you get in the 4-pack, maybe 3 ounces) into a glass of water and then instead of mixing in something to turn it clear again, he just drank the whole glass! I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to consume that much red dye in under a minute.

... and that's supposed to represent repentance how? Because Jesus drank all of our sins?

[Marduk]

Oh, I could make a really innapropriate joke right now, and Stuntman, you'd be laughing your head off. But some others might be offended. So I won't. But if you like, you can remind me next time I see you.

[Katya]

The biggest failure of that object lesson that I've ever seen was when a gospel principles teacher put an entire bottle of red food coloring (bigger than the little bottle you get in the 4-pack, maybe 3 ounces) into a glass of water and then instead of mixing in something to turn it clear again, he just drank the whole glass! I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to consume that much red dye in under a minute.

Better than drinking that much bleach . . .

[UnluckyStuntman]

Oh, I could make a really innapropriate joke right now, and Stuntman, you'd be laughing your head off. But some others might be offended. So I won't. But if you like, you can remind me next time I see you.

I have to hear this. I will be bugging you about this non-stop until I do.