What Is That White Powder?

What is that white powder?

Today you will be a forensic chemist.

A bag of white powder has been confiscated by the airport customs. You need to find out what white powder it is?

Aim: To learn about the makeup of different white powders.

There are  a number of different white powders in our everyday life. Some of these are harmful and others are not. Test the four white powders listed to see which one has been found at the airport.

Here are some examples of everyday kitchen white powders.

Flour

Cornflour

Sugar

Salt

Baking Soda

Baking Powder

Icing Sugar

Tartaric Acid

Citric Acid

Gluten Free flour

Materials

1.  Paper (black)

2.  Salt

3.  Sugar

4.  Baking Powder

5. Corn Flour

6.   Water

7. Iodine

8. Vinegar

Upload a photo of each powder.

1.  Corn Flour

2.  Baking Soda

3.  Salt  

4. Sugar

On the black cardboard using a microscope you need to record what you see. You will be given a small amount of 4 white powders on your cardboard. Look at them under your microscope and record what you see.

Do not mix the powders or taste the powders.

Findings:

	Sugar	Salt	Baking Soda	Cornflour
Appearance	Crystally	Very Very Crystally	Very powdery	White powder
Texture	Rough	Fine	Fine	Clumpy
Smell	Nothing	Nothing	Gassy (Light)	Corn (Strong)
Iodine	Stays As Liquid	Infuses	Infuses	Hard Dots
Water	Dissolved	Dissolved	Goes Into A Clump	Weird Texture
Vinegar	Infused	Infused	Fizzy	Powder Goes Into Liquid

Write a paragraph about your findings.

As we put the iodine onto the white powders they suddenly changed colours, the vinegar made things fizz and the water made everything.