How can we make a paperclip float?

10/08/18
Friday, Science!

At science, we did an experiment on making a paperclip float, Rieya and I were partners.

Materials:
clean dry paper clips
tissue paper
a bowl of water
pencil with eraser

What do we need to do?

Fill the bowl with water
Try to make the paper clip float…not much luck, huh?
Tear a piece of tissue paper about half the size of a dollar bill
gently drop the tissue flat onto the surface of the water
gently place a dry paper clip flat onto the tissue (try not to touch the water or the tissue)
Use the eraser end of the pencil to carefully poke the tissue (not the paper clip) until the tissue sinks. With some luck, the tissue will sink and leave the paper clip floating!

How does it work?

How is this possible? With a little thing we scientists call SURFACE TENSION. Basically, it means that there is a sort of skin on the surface of the water where the water molecules hold on tight together. If the conditions are right, they can hold tight enough to support your paper clip. The paperclip is not truly floating, it is being held up by the surface tension. Many insects, such as water striders, use this “skin” to walk across the surface of a stream.

Success! It actually worked! At first, I thought that a paperclip would sink because the paperclip is heavier than the water, it did sink but when we put the tissue and put a paper clip on top of it, and it actually floated.  We gently and slowly removed the tissue by pushing it down with a pencil. Instead of using a bowl, we used a beaker instead because we didn't have a bowl. 

1. How many paperclips can the surface tension hold? 

We only used 2 paper clips so the answer is 2

2. Does the shape of the paperclip affect its floating ability?

Maybe because a paper clip is like a circular, oblong  circular and it's preventing the water to make it sink

3. What liquids have the strongest surface tension?

Water

4. Can the surface tension of water be made stronger? (try sprinkling baby powder on the surface)

Maybe we can try this on another experiment because we don't have a baby powder right now