Melting Mole Dollars

Demonstration Kit

Introduction

Just drop the mole dollar in water and watch it disappear! Melting Mole Dollars are guaranteed to keep your assets very, very liquid! Perfect for deficit spending! Learn about water-soluble paper as Avogadro’s mole dollar disappears in water.

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Concepts

  • Solubility

Materials

Melting Mole Dollars
Container of water

Safety Precautions

Dissolvo® is nontoxic; however do not ingest. Follow all normal laboratory guidelines.

Disposal

Please consult your current Flinn Scientific Catalog/Reference Manual for general guidelines and specific procedures, and review all federal, state and local regulations that may apply, before proceeding. Rinse the water containing the dissolved Melting Mole Dollars down the drain according to Flinn Suggested Disposal Method #26b.

Procedure

  1. Place a Melting Mole Dollar in water and watch as it dissolves.

Correlation to Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)†

Science & Engineering Practices

Asking questions and defining problems
Planning and carrying out investigations
Obtaining, evaluation, and communicating information

Disciplinary Core Ideas

MS-PS1.B: Chemical Reactions
HS-PS1.A: Structure and Properties of Matter

Crosscutting Concepts

Structure and function

Performance Expectations

MS-PS1-2. Analyze and interpret data on the properties of substances before and after the substances interact to determine if a chemical reaction has occurred.
HS-PS2-6. Communicate scientific and technical information about why the molecular-level structure is important in the functioning of designed materials.

Discussion

Melting Mole Dollars are printed on water-soluble paper called Dissolvo. Dissolvo looks, feels and tears like ordinary paper. You can write and even photocopy on it.

Dissolvo is 80% carboxymethyl cellulose and 20% wood pulp fibers. Carboxymethyl cellulose is a semisynthetic water soluble polymer with a molecular weight range of 21,000 to 50,000. It is most commonly available as a sodium salt with the formula RnOCH2COONa.

Water-soluble paper has been used by the government for confidential and classified documents. Other uses include dissolvable labels, protecting painting areas of automobiles during production, as a component in leak detection systems for NASA booster rockets and, of course, Melting Mole Dollars.

References

Gilbreth International Corporation’s literature on Dissolvo®.

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†Next Generation Science Standards and NGSS are registered trademarks of Achieve. Neither Achieve nor the lead states and partners that developed the Next Generation Science Standards were involved in the production of this product, and do not endorse it.