Turn Ice into Ghost Crystals

A common material you can purchase at a plant store are water gel crystals.  These crystals are made out of a super-absorbent polymer called polyacrylamide.  When this polymer absorbs water it looks like ice.  Placing this ice into water and it looks like it disappears like a ghost.

You will need:

Water gel crystals (polyacrylamide), water, several containers, food coloring, needle and thread, a nail, toothpick or wire.

Now try this:

• Prepare the ice: Place a 1 ½ teaspoon of the crystals for every quart of water.  Add food coloring to the water if you?d like to color the ice.

• Allow crystals to sit in water, you will see expansion right away but for complete ?growth? it takes 2-8 hours.  Warm water will speed up the process.

• Remove the crystals from any remaining water and observe how they?ve expanded.  Place a few crystals back into the water and it will look like they disappear.

• Taking a needle and thread, nail, or wire, toothpick, or thread through a few crystals.  Place this into the water and it will look like the tread, nail, toothpick, or wire are magically suspended in the water.

• There are several things you can do with your ice.  One suggestion is to make a column of different colored ice. 

• Placing the crystals into soil you will have a self watering system for several weeks for any plants you would like to grow.

Explanation:

Water gel crystals are made of a super-absorbing polymer called polyacrylamide that can absorb many hundreds of times their own weight.  They are utilized to keeping plants watered because when placed in soil thy are constantly expanding and contracting when absorbing and releasing water.  These crystals look a lot like ice, perhaps because they are made mostly of water.  When these crystals are placed in water they ?disappear? because their index of refraction is almost the same as water.