The Great Water Race

Yesterday, we used wax paper to show how water droplets are cohesive.  The students dropped several beads of water in a small area on a sheet of wax paper.  Next, they gently shook the paper and observed.  The students noticed that the droplets came together to form one large bead.  In some cases, when the small droplets got near one another, they seemed to attract each other like a magnet.  


For the second part of our demonstration, we taped a maze on top of a piece of cardboard and then taped the wax paper on top of the maze.  Students were asked to guide their drop of water from start to finish without going out of bounds.  The students noticed how the water slid on top of the wax paper instead of being absorbed into it.  Almost all the students participated but only six were able to make it through without going out of bounds.

Unfortunately, my camera died before I could get pictures of all the contestants.  Our contestants and their times are as follows: 

Contestant                                     Time

S.W.                                                 34 seconds

A.G.                                                 36 seconds

E.W.                                                45 seconds

J.M.                                                 53 seconds

I.L.                                                   1 minute 3 seconds

M.S.                                                 1 minute 31 seconds