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Course

I am a Maker – Inventor Junior (Age: 9-12)

Explore – Secret Message

Lemon juice is great in lemonade, can be a garnish for foods, and doubles as ink for your secret messages.

Ah, a tall, cool glass of lemonade on a hot day just makes everything better. Lemon juice can spark up a salad, add zing to some grilled fish, and keep your avocados and bananas from turning brown.
Strangely, however, it turns paper brown and reveals secret messages you’ve written using plain old lemon juice.
Alternatively, we can use milk as well

  1. Add about 1 tablespoon (15 ml) of lemon juice/milk to the cup. (Fresh squeezed or bottled juice will work just fine)
  2. Soak an end of the cotton swab or put the paintbrush into the lemon juice/milk. Use this to write your message
  3. Write your message on plain paper. You’ll be able to see it as long as the paper is wet so let the lemon-juice/milk message dry completely
  4. There’s no rush to reveal the message. When the time comes to read it, you can use several methods.
    NOTE: Please take an adult’s help while performing this activity.
  5. To reveal the message,  here are some options:

a. You can hold the paper over an incandescent light bulb with OK results. It may be hard to tell if the bulb is hot enough, so you may not know whether your paper is blank or whether you just can’t see the message yet.

b. You can “iron” your paper but don’t use the steam setting. This may be the best method. A clean rag between the iron and the paper helps keep the iron’s hot surface clean.

c. Put a pan on the stove and switch on the flame.  Let the pan get hot. Now place your paper on the pan very carefully,  the message will appear.

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