Walking Water Experiment (Rainbow Walking Water)

Walking Water Experiment (Capillary Action)
Get water to "walk" from one cup to another in this colorful science experiment.
Fun & Easy experiment with Capillary action, the amazing, gravity-defying scientific phenomenon that causes liquids to flow up.

Made for parents and teachers

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Chapters
0:00 Kids Fun Science Intro
0:22 What your need
0:33 Set up
1:56 Experiment
2:27 Science Behind it

What you need
3 to 7 glasses of equal height (depends on what colors you want to use.)
Water
Food Coloring (Red, Blue, Yellow )
Paper Towel (I used Bounty)

I used hot water and Bounty Paper towels (The quicker Picker upper)
Kids can learn about how secondary colors are formed when the orange, green and purple colors are made in the empty cups and Capillary Action.

Capillary effects involve two things: the surface tension of the liquid itself and the contact angle of the liquid on a solid surface. High surface tension means the liquid is capable of clinging strongly to itself. Low contact angle means good "wetting" of the surface by the liquid and maximizes the effectiveness of that pull.

This means that high surface tension and low contact angle mean a high capillary draw up the paper towels.

Now, as the temperature of water increases, the surface tension of the water diminishes. This makes it easier for attractive forces between water molecules and other surfaces in the vicinity to pull water into capillary crevices and pores in those surfaces and wet them out. This is why hot water does a better job rinsing dirt out of your clothes than cold water does: it reduces the contact angle between the water and the solid surfaces, enhancing the wettability of those surfaces.

But note that if we reduce the surface tension of the water, we reduce the available pull force it can exert to drag itself up a vertical surface against gravity. So although the hot water wets that surface better, it cannot climb as far up that surface, and the capillary draw goes down in response. But lucky for us, we don't have to climb very far, so gravity is not going to be a problem for this experiment.

We make up for this by agitating the surfaces in contact with the water while washing them, so as to assist the water to get in there and do its job. This is why we put agitators in washing machines.

We can do much the same at room temperature by adding detergents to the water which "break" its surface tension without heat. Now it wets the surfaces like crazy.

Capillary Action .....in Action! Without capillary action, the water level in all glasses would be the same.

Even if you've never heard of capillary action, it is still important in your life. Capillary action is important for moving water (and all of the things that are dissolved in it) around. It is defined as the movement of water within the spaces of a porous material due to the forces of adhesion, cohesion, and surface tension.

Capillary action occurs because water is sticky, thanks to the forces of cohesion (water molecules stay close together) & adhesion (water molecules are attracted & stick to other substances). Adhesion of water to the walls of a vessel will cause an upward force on the liquid at the edges and result in a meniscus which turns upward. The surface tension acts to hold the surface intact. Capillary action occurs when the adhesion to the walls is stronger than the cohesive forces between the liquid molecules. The height to which capillary action will take water in a uniform circular tube (picture to right) is limited by surface tension and, of course, gravity.

Not only does water tend to stick together in a drop, it sticks to glass, cloth, organic tissues, soil, and, luckily, to the fibers in a paper towel. Dip a paper towel into a glass of water and the water will "climb" onto the paper towel. In fact, it will keep going up the towel until the pull of gravity is too much for it to overcome.

Thanks for watching. Remember to subscribe and comment below if you have a experiment you would like to see.
Remember to subscribe and comment below if you have a experiment you would like to see.

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