//NEW Science is Fun!: Needle floating on water!!! (Magic or Science?)

Even a Dollar you Donate Will help the Authors

Grow or shrink an egg (Is it magic!?!)

MATERIALS : 2 ping pong eggs (See the writing Ping pong egg! ) 2 transparent glasses or containers where at least one egg will fit ...

Friday 3 August 2012

Needle floating on water!!! (Magic or Science?)

EQUIPMENTS:


  1. A needle
  2. A bowl or bucket
  3. Water
  4. A thin piece of paper (You can use tissue paper)

INSTRUCTIONS:
  1. At first, pour some water in the bowl or bucket. Pour enough water so that it fills at least half of the bowl.
  2. Now slowly place a small piece of paper on the water. Remember that the paper mast be wide enough to at least wrap the needle (Although we are not actually going to wrap the needle).
  3. Now carefully place the needle on the paper before it starts to sink in the water.
  4. Wait until the paper sinks into the water completely.
  5. See what happens after the piece of paper sunk into the water.
  6. Now pour a little bit soup into the water and see what happens.

RESULTS:
  1. When the paper sinks into the water you will surprisingly see that the needle is still floating on the water!
  2. When you pour the soap in the water the needle will sink.

EXPLANATION:
When the paper sinks, the needle still floats on the water. Why dose it happen? Is it magic or science?? Well, many people believe that making a needle float on the water can only be demonstrated by a man of magical powers. This idea most probably came from the medieval age. But the thing is anyone can do that if they follow the procedure given above. When we put the paper on the water, it easily floats because it's very light. When we put the needle on the paper it still floats because the weight of the needle is divided on the whole width of paper. In this way the water furface has to bear only a little portion of weight on every point. Because the needle is on top of the water, the gravity does not affect the needle very much. And because the needle is not falling with a velocity, it won’t make much disturbance in the water when the paper sinks. And that’s why the water will be stable enough to keep the needle upwards, thus the needle will float. The surface tension of the water plays a very important role in making the needle float. Because surface tension is the main reason for objects to float on the water in the first place. When we pour some soap into the water it reduces the surface tension. That’s why the needle sinks after pouring soap into the water.

MORE EXPLANATIONS:
When we take the needle over the bowl and let it fall then it goes straight under the water. It happens because the gravity pulls it down and with every passing moment the needle gains more and more speed. The fall of the needle makes a great disturbance in the water. So the molecules of the water become very unstable to hold the needle upwards or mskr it float. Also it's a fact that the more heavy the object is compared to its size, the more hard it is for the water make object float. The surface tension of the water won’t be able to keep a needle upwards due to those reasons described above.

Defination of Surface Tension: The attraction among  liquids particles produces a force or a tension across the liquids surface. This force is called the surface tension. 
This force allows a liquid to behave like a stretched skin. Surface tension pulls drops and bubbles into spheres. 

OTHER EXPERIMENTS FOR YOU: 
  1. Try to float the needle on other liquids such as oil.
  2. Try to float the needle without any paper only by using your hand.
  3. Try to float other heavy objects on the water.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Flag Counter