Floating Paperclip and Other Surface Tension Experiments

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In this activity, learners experiment with surface tension using everyday household items such as strawberry baskets, paperclips, liquid dish soap, and pepper. Learners will try to float objects on water and explore how the water molecules react to the addition of different substances. This activity will also introduce learners to water polarity. [Activity is publicly available through a web crawler capture on Archive.org.]

Quick Guide

Preparation Time:
Under 5 minutes
Learning Time:
10 to 30 minutes
Estimated Materials Cost:
1 cent - $1 per group of students
Age Range:
Ages 11 - 18
Resource Types:
Activity, Experiment/Lab Activity
Language:
English

Materials List (per group of students)

  • Bowl
  • Paperclips
  • Strawberry Basket (optional)
  • Liquid Dish Soap
  • Water
  • Pepper (optional)

Keywords

Subjects

  • Physical Sciences
    • Electricity and Magnetism
      • Electric Charges and Currents
    • Chemistry
      • Chemical Bonding
    • States of Matter
      • Liquids
    • Structure and Properties of Matter
      • Atomic Structure
      • Mass and Weight
  • The Nature of Science
    • The Scientific Process
      • Conducting Investigations

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:

  • Johnson, Jill

Rights:

  • All rights reserved, Exploratorium, 2006