On Monday nights we have our after school clubs. One of the clubs is Science Club – in Science club we have been carrying out a few different experiments. These experiments have allowed us to deepen our thinking and scientific knowledge. Our first experiment we carried out was to answer the scientific question.
How does a paper towel soak up a spill?
Why it worked! The capillaries (tiny, long tubes) in the plant fibers of the paper towel soak up the water, bringing them up the paper towel through cohesion (where the molecules stick together).
Why does it rain?
In this experiment the shaving foam represents the clouds, the water represents air and food coloring represents precipitation (rain). As the food coloring precipitation (rain) saturates the shaving foam (cloud) it becomes heavy. When the cloud can no longer hold it, the food coloring (rain) rains down through the water, like rain falls through the air to the ground.
Can you poke a hole in a bag of water and prevent the water from coming out?
Sandwich bags are made of polymer plastic, when you poke a pencil through it slides between the polymer molecules and the molecules that were spread apart from blowing up the bag with water then seal themselves around the pencil as they return to their original unstretched position.
If one pin pops a balloon, what do 100 pins do?
One tack pin will pop any balloon because as you push the pin on the balloon it is pressed into a very small surface of the balloon. However 100 pins distrubute the pressure along the wall of the balloon , so the force in one area is lessened and the balloon won’t pop.
Can you make a penny look new again?
Pennies made before 1983 are made of mostly copper, which over time they get mucky and turn dull with age. Using lemon juice and dark fizzy pop (cola) we can make a penny look new again.
Can you make milk dance?
This experiment can be a little tricky to understand, but it all involves a property of water called Surface Tension. Water molecules are attracted to one another but not in the air. The water molecules will try to make the surface as small as they possibly can to be close to one another; this is what surface tension is. Milk is in fact mostly water, so it, too, has surface tension.
The washing-up liquid is designed to break up the surface tension of water so it can dissolve and clean fats and grease in the kitchen. As a result, we can use washing up liquid’s surface tension-breaking ability to break up the surface tension of the milk!
How does a nappy hold liquid?
We looked at a normal nappy (Miss Woodward borrowed them from her little girl) and we looked at how much water a nappy can hold. Do you know it can hold 4 pints of water – we then cut up a nappy to look at what it is that holds the water in there – here is what we found!
Glitter Germs
How do germs spread? Colds, stomach bugs and flus are all caused by germs that are far too tiny to see with the naked eye; you need a microscope to see them. In this experiment we used glitter to see how germs are spread from person to person.
Why it worked! –
Just like the glitter was easily spread from person to person and object to object, germs are passed the same way. It is important to wash your hands after touching something that might have germs. When you wash your hands it’s important to wash them for long enough to get all the germs off them, we suggest that you sing ‘Old McDonald has a farm’.
What happens when a gas is released from a liquid?
The three states of matter are liquid, gas and solid. in this experiment we will see what happens when you release the gas from a liquid.
Why it worked?
Soda is made up of dissolving carbon dioxide (CO2) into liquid, usually by pressure. But CO2 is non polar and water is polar. that means they don’t like to stay mixed, When the mint is dropped into the soda, it falls to the bottom and cardon dioxide bubbles are freed from the soda. Because the bubbles are lighter than soda they rise to the surface and erupt out the bottle.