A chemistry professor wanted his students to learn the importance of ensuring the identity of each the chemicals that they would be using in the laboratory before adding them to any experiment. He placed petri dishes of seven white substances in front of them: salt, granulated sugar, flour, baking soda, corn starch, confectioner’s sugar and coffee creamer.
Using only their visual appearance in each dish, the students were asked to determine what each substance was. None of the students was able to correctly identify all seven compounds. The professor used this demonstration to remind each student that many chemicals look the same, and using the wrong one can have serious consequences. One way to avoid this is to check the container’s label every time a product is used.