Red cabbage juice changes color when it touches an acid or a base, which makes it a useful detector. You boil cabbage leaves in water, soak paper towel strips in the purple liquid, and let them dry. Place a dry strip over a disturbed anthill, and if the ants are spraying formic acid, the strip turns pink.

Phosphoric acid is an ingredient in drinks like Coke and Pepsi — the same acid dentists use to etch teeth before bonding. When it meets tooth enamel, the acid dissolves the enamel's surface. Soaking fifteen wisdom teeth in five different strengths of phosphoric acid for seven days showed exactly how much: higher acid concentration meant more enamel dissolved.

When you pour vinegar on top of baking soda, the acid neutralizes the base and the two chemicals react. As a result, they release carbon dioxide gas. That gas is what creates the fizzing bubbles you see escaping into the air.

Dissolve baking soda in water, drop in small pieces of spaghetti, then add vinegar. The two ingredients react and produce carbon dioxide gas. Bubbles stick to the spaghetti and lift it to the surface — and when the bubbles pop, the spaghetti sinks and the cycle starts again.

Drop baking soda into a bottle of oil and colored water, then add a splash of vinegar. The two ingredients react and create gas bubbles. Those bubbles carry colored water up through the oil — and when the bubbles pop, the blobs fall back down and the cycle starts again.