Oil and Ice

We experimented with density of liquids today. First we colored some ice and got some cooking oil.

Then we put the ice in the oil. As the ice melts, the water droplets sink to the bottom of the oil - a bit like a lava lamp.

The idea was that the ice would float on the oil (because it is less dense than the oil) but the water would sink (because it is more dense than oil). The density of canola oil which is what we had around our house is 0.915 g/cc and the density of ice is 0.916 g/cc so our oil wasn't quite dense enough for the ice to float, so we ended up putting the ice above the cup of oil and letting the water drip into the oil from above. Apparently castor oil has a density of 0.96 so that should work better. Liquid water has a density of 1.00 g/cc