Grow Amazing Crystals in Just Hours
Intro: Grow Amazing Crystals in Just Hours
-Hello Youtubers, and Instructaganders today I am going to teach you how to grow cool Magnesium Sulfate Crystals in just a few hours.
Some of you might ask What's magnesium sulfate? Is it expensive? Sounds complicated... No, Magnesium Sulfate is rather cheap, you can get it at the local store. And many of you might already have it around the house under the name of Epsom salt. And this whole process is as simple as mixing to things together!! With that aside let's get started with this fun experimant!!
Above is a magnified view of some of the Crystals I grew, If you want to see more please watch the video as I show many different types :)
STEP 1: Mixing the Ingrediants
First thing we are going to do, is add a half of a cup of water to a pot that is being heated on a stove or some other type of significant thermal source, remember we want to get this water to boil. After that we need to add 1 and a half cups of Epsom salt, once again it can be bought at many local store, as often it is used as a therapeutic soak for help in relieving minor pains. Once that is completed we are going to have to wait until the water heats up enough too dissolve the Epsom salt, our goal here is to heat up the water to allow for it to dissolve as much Epsom salt as possible.
Then later as the water cools, it no longer will be able to keep a lot of the Epsom salt in solution. This will force it out, and cause very rapid crystal growth. That is exactly how we are going to simulate a process in a couple of hours, that can take thousands of years to occur in nature. So as it heats, keep stirring the solution until all the Epsom salt dissolves.
A fun way to think about this at this point, is the stuff is almost like Liquid crystal. You can see that my spoon is covered in Magnesium Sulfate, that is from the water cooling off on the spoon and causing the magnesium sulfate to be able to solidify. Remember if you're not careful you can very easily burn yourself at this point.
STEP 2: Letting the Solution Sit
The next thing to do it pour the solution into a container and let it sit undisturbed while it cools, clear glass is best to observe the growth however be sure that the glass you use is heat fracture resistant. I am using a Pyrex bowl.
Many variables can effect how the crystals look while they grow. More or less Magnesium, Sulfate in the solution. If a hot solution, how quick the solution cools, or if it is grown out of a cold solution how quick it evaporates. And how long the crystals are left to grow can all change their structure drastically.
This photo is about 8 Minutes into growth.
STEP 3: Drain Off the Excess Solution & Enjoy Your Creation
When the crystals reach a point you like, drain off as much of the
excess solution as possible and let the crystals air dry. If you don't want to waste extra Magnesium Sulfate, you can continue to grow more Crystals with the excess solution like i did here with these green ones. However doing this, will take longer as the solution needs to evaporate in order to let more Crystals to form.
This is how it looked after about an hour of growth (A day for the Green ones), remember though many factors may affect how yours look and the time it takes to grow. Please watch the video if you wish to see some of the different types I grew, and some outstanding close up shots.
You can also add food coloring after you dissolve the magnesium sulfate to color your crystals (As I did with the Green ones).
So hopefully you can see how cool this simple project can be, if you try out it yourself feel free to play around with the concentrations, or time you let the crystals grow. These crystals are also perfectly safe to touch and even eat, however I would advise against that seeing as how they can act as a laxative.
And remember if you go to clean your crystals you can only use something like a duster, or canned air as water would simply just re-dissolve them.
Thanks very much for reading and watching, Bye!
And I hope you enjoy this awesome science experiment, and remember to have to fun and be Safe!
11 Comments
MaciekM12 7 years ago
I have 2 questions:
Is the pot can be cleaned after boiling?
Can I use a plastic container during cooling water?
CraftySaenz 7 years ago
Can they be sealed to use in jewelry making?
kfielding2 9 years ago
Walter White is that you? LOL jk cool science!
TrollFaceTheMan 9 years ago
If you vote for this, I'll love you forever <3
kristiaan_d 9 years ago
Hi, what difference is there with the one week and one month cold solutions? I'd be interested in trying the 1 Month solution to get some larger crystals as they'd be great to use in macro photos but I wasn't sure if it was as simple as just making a bowl of the solution and leaving it to sit for a month? does it evaporate before the month end, do i need to top up the solution etc?
TrollFaceTheMan 9 years ago
If it is a big enough bowl of solution you wont have to worry about it evaporating by the months end XD
And yes, just make a saturated solution and let it evaporate.
Anyways the longer and slower you grow them the bigger they get. (To an extent...)
The thing is, that the one month and 1 week cold crystals look smiler in many aspects, but some of the 1 months are just freakishly big, and symmetrical
If you want to get bigger better looking crystals it is best to start with a seed crystal first. Or even to grow it off of a rock or something.
TrollFaceTheMan 9 years ago
Yep, based on how long the Crystals Grow, how fast they grow, or how much magnesium sulfate you use. You can get my different types of crystal growths, the video here shows some of the different types of Crystals I grew using different methods.
If you haven't already checked it out, I asure you it is worth a look. Thanks again for the comment and vote!
TrollFaceTheMan 9 years ago
Thank you very much I appreciate it.
TrollFaceTheMan 9 years ago
Please hit vote if you like this Project!! It means a lot to me <3
LINDAU 9 years ago
TrollFaceTheMan 9 years ago
Yep, that is good way to make a String-O-Crystals XD
And thanks :)