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Saturday, October 3, 2009

Which Boat Moves Fastest?

This past week we did the coolest experiment in Science. We are using Apologia General Science and we are loving it! We are not moving real fast, but taking our time with it and it has been a blast!

This week we were studying experimental variables and had to use different items around the house with homemade cardboard boats to see which item made the boat move.

Each cardboard boat was cut in rectangular shape, 3 inches long, 2 inches wide. The front of the boat was cut into a point, and the back of the boat had a notch cut out in order to place the “motor” on the boat.

We had 4 boats and 3 different motors. On one boat was a piece of chewed chewing gum, on another boat was a small wet ball of toilet paper, on the third boat was a chunk of soap, and on the last boat was nothing.

Each boat was placed in a bathtub filled 3 inches deep with water. All boats barely moved EXCEPT the one with soap. The one with soap flew across the bathtub.

Doing this experiment we learned that there is something in soap that interferes with the surface tension of the water causing it to move the boat rapidly.

I do believe this was the coolest experiment we have done so far!

Jens siggy

1 comment:

Nancy said...

When I was in college, we had boat races across the indoor pool. Each club had to build their own boat(nothing motorized). It was SO much fun. Lots of crazy contraptions. Wish I'd known about the soap then!