Litmus Paper
   
What the heck is litmus paper anyway?

Oh yea, and what's it for?

 Litmus paper is a type of indicator.  An indicator is a chemical that changes color when exposed to an acid or base.  Litmus paper indicates the presence of acid in a substance by turning pink.  In the presence of a base litmus will turn blue.  Litmus also gives a rough idea of the strength of the acid or base by turning a brighter red or pink.  The brighter the color the stronger the acid or base.
   

How to make your own litmus paper at home.
   
Materials:  Coffee filters or some other type of filter paper, 1 head of red cabbage, (it's really purple just called red for who knows what reason), 1/2 cup of distilled water, (tap water will work but can sometimes change the indicator because of the pH of the chemicals in the water),  1 medium sized bowl, a kitchen knife, cutting board, and a blender or food processor.
   
Directions: 1.  Get your parents permission or assistance.  (Sorry kids it's an adult thing!)
  2.  Cut off a few chunks of the purple part of the cabbage.
  3.  Place the cabbage in the blender/food processor and grind it up!
  4.  Add just enough water to the contents of the blender to make the ground up cabbage juicy.
  5.  Grind it up a little more after adding the water.
  6.  Place a stack of coffee filters, (as many as you really think you will need) into the bowl.
  7.  Pour the cabbage mush into the filter on the top so that it catches all of the cabbage guts.
  8.  Wait for the juice to soak through into the rest of the filters.
  9.  After all of the filters are soaked with the juice throw away the top filter with the cabbage guts in it.  Put it in the compost pile if you have one!
  10.  Lay out the other the filters on some newspaper or other non destroyable surface.  NOT THE COUCH DUMMY!!!!
  11.  Let the litmus papers, (coffee filters) dry thoroughly.
  12.  That's it!  you now have a really cool way to check out the stuff around your house to find out its acid or base content!  Make sure to let mom or dad know what your doing, and don't test anything that you wouldn't either eat or put on your skin.
  13.  Oh yea.... Make sure to clean up your mess!!!  I don't want your mom mad at me!
   
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