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| A question
recently sent to us: |
| "I am in 7th
grade. I did an experiment in school that measured how
long it took for cement to set with different liquids
at 5 different temperatures (400, 200, room, refrig,
freezer). I used water, orange juice, and cooking oil.
The water and oj set okay but the oil never dried. I
don't know why. Can you help explain this? Thanks!" |
| Our answer: |
| Thank you for
visiting www.cooperconcrete.com. Congratulations on
your experiment. You have asked a very interesting
question. I would guess that the orange juice took
much longer to set than the water because of the sugar
in the orange juice. Concrete needs H20 in order for
the chemical reaction of the cement to occur. The
cement is hydrated by water. My assumption would be
that the cooking oil does not hydrate the cement
particles. Also, vegetable oils, or more specifically
all saponifying (or soaping) oils, are detrimental to
concrete. Acidic oils react with alkaline concrete. |
| What do you
think? |
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