How do you make a lolly stick race across water? Would you believe me if I told you all you needed was a drop of washing up liquid and some water to do a fun surface tension experiment?
What you need
Water and a large container – we used our water table, but you could even do it in the bath.
Washing up liquid
Wooden lolly stick
Instructions
Fill your container with water, you only need it a couple of cm deep.
Place the lolly stick on the water, it should float.
Add a little washing up liquid at one end of the stick. It should zoom off.
The Science Part
This little investigation is a great demonstration of surface tension. When you have a container full of water the water molecules below the surface are pulled together equally in all directions, but those on top are pulled together more tightly, as they don’t have water molecules above them, this draws them together to form a kind of ‘skin’ which we call surface tension. It is the surface tension that stops the lolly stick sinking. When we added washing up liquid we disrupted the arrangement of the water molecules which decreased the surface tension behind the stick.
Water molecules move from areas of low surface tension to high surface tension and so the stick moved.
Extension ideas
Could you make a little boat and see if that moves?
More Surface Tension Experiments
Super Simple Surface Tension Experiment
This is a great summer science activity!
What a neat and fun lesson!! Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday!!
Oh I never knew that. I’ve been collecting lollipop sticks and I’m sure my boys will love this activity.
super
cool 🙂