Lauren Bowker has produced an instructional video with The Lost Explorer in which she demonstrates the step-by-step use of red cabbage dye as a pH indicator. She shows at the end of the video how t-shirts washed in water from different locations will be a completely different color based on the water pH. Lauren’s work has been featured a number of times on Adafruit, but this is a little different than her high art as it is super DIY friendly.
HOW DOES THE CABBAGE DYE WORK AND WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
LB: Red cabbage juice contains anthocyanin and can be used as a pH indicator. It’s red, pink, or magenta in acids, purple in neutral solutions, and ranges from blue to green to yellow in alkaline solutions. Anthropogenic causes of pH fluctuations in our water are usually related to pollution in the air, soil or directly into the water. Acid rain is one of the best-known examples of human influence on the pH of water and it comes from the reaction of water with nitrogen oxides, sulphur oxides and other acidic compounds, lowering its already slightly acidic pH. These emissions usually come from mining and smelting operations or fossil fuel combustion. Wastewater discharge that contains detergents and soap-based products can also cause a water source to become too basic. So the t-shirts, by changing colour, are a really good way of figuring out the state of the local water.
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat and our Discord!
Python for Microcontrollers – Adafruit Daily — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: New Python Releases, an ESP32+MicroPython IDE and Much More! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi
EYE on NPI – Adafruit Daily — EYE on NPI Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey
