Divers

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Learners experiment with a 2-liter plastic bottle containing water and four “divers." The divers consist of open, transparent containers with the opening points downward. Each diver has a different amount of air trapped inside. As learners squeeze the sides of the bottle, water rises in the diver containers, and the air inside the divers compresses. This makes the divers sink, float, or hover depending on the amount of pressure the learners apply. This activity is a nice interactive experiment to display concepts of buoyancy and density.

Quick Guide

Preparation Time:
10 to 30 minutes
Learning Time:
10 to 30 minutes
Estimated Materials Cost:
1 cent - $1 per group of students
Age Range:
Ages 6 - adult
Resource Type:
Activity
Language:
English

Materials List (per group of students)

  • One 2-liter plastic soft drink bottle with cap
  • Four jumbo plastic pipettes
  • Four metal nuts with an interior diameter just smaller than the outer diameter of the stem of the pipettes
  • Electrical tape

Keywords

Subjects

  • Physical Sciences
    • Chemistry
    • States of Matter
      • Gases
    • Structure and Properties of Matter
      • Volume and Density

Informal Categories

  • Toys

Audience

To use this activity, learners need to:

  • see
  • touch

Learning styles supported:

  • Involves hands-on or lab activities

Other

This resource is part of:

Access Rights:

  • Free access

By:

Rights:

Funding Source:

  • National Science Foundation