Скачать или смотреть Floating Paperclip

Otago Museum – your museum, in your home
Visit http://www.otagomuseum.nz/athome for kids activities, science experiments, collection stories, digital puzzles and more.

Kia ora! Ko Sophie toku ikoa. Kei te whare taoka o Otago ahau e mahi ana. Hi, my name is Sophie and I work at the Otago Museum – but right now I'm working from home, which is not quite as fun as working in Tūhura, our science centre.

So today, I’m going to show you a little science experiment we can all do with something that we probably have around our house – paperclips!
Now paperclips are made of metal, so normally if you put them into water, they’ll sink. However, with a little bit of science, we can make them float.
By placing the paperclip gently on the top of the water, we’re making use of something called surface tension, which prevents the paperclip from sinking.
Water molecules have a slightly negative charge on one side and a slightly positive charge on the other, which means that water molecules sitting next to each other are attracted to each other – a bit like they are gently holding hands! Because the molecules at the top of the water have fewer other molecules around them, they are holding hands more tightly, which causes surface tension.

With just a little bit of force, you can overcome this surface tension and the paper clip will sink. So, it is not a very strong force, but it is an important one. Some insects are able to take advantage of surface tension and can use it to move across water without drowning!

Thanks for watching! Be sure check out more of Otago Museum online at our website. We hope to see you when we can back at the museum, but for now, take care!