NRELEd: Teaching Science at Home

Energy is defined as the ability to do work. NREL studies many different sources of renewable energy. These sources provide us with many different types of energy like electricity and heat. Heat is a necessary energy component to all experiments. (Heat is also critical to our perception of time. Here is a super interesting podcast exploring just that.) Anytime a reaction occurs, heat is either required to push the reaction forward (endothermic) or it is a product of the reaction (exothermic). In this experiment, heat will catalyze the reaction between the paper and citric acid and reveal a secret message!