The Digital Bits Science Labs are fun science experiments for young children. Kids, make sure you have an adult's permission before trying any of these science experiments.
Digital Bits Science Lab
Science Experiments and Education for Kids and Parents
Power a boat with surface tension: Make a “zoomer”
Description:
A “zoomer” is a small boat-shaped piece of paper that zooms around the surface of water using surface tension.
Equipment needed:
A wide body of water. At the smallest, you should use something like a bathtub. Bigger examples would be a puddle or a swimming pool. The water must be calm, however. If there are waves or splashes, the experiment won’t work.
Several index cards
Scissors
Liquid dishwashing soap
An eye dropper, or medicine dropper
The Digital Bits Science Lab Experiment:
Cut out an index card in a shape like this:
Notice the hole cut near the bottom - be sure to cut out that part, too. This hole is where we’ll drop the liquid soap.
Fill your eye dropper with some of your liquid soap.
Next, carefully drop the zoomer into your water.
Finally, quickly squeeze a couple drops of liquid soap into the hole in the bottom of the zoomer. And the zoomer will zoom! It will move quickly around, and will also stop fairly quickly, depending on the size of your water container.
What’s happening? The zoomer is taking advantage of surface tension - the “skin” that forms on top of the water, allowing small things (like bugs, leaves, and your zoomer) to float on top.
Dishwashing liquid - and every other soap - will break water’s surface tension. The breaking of the surface tension pushes the zoomer forward. The zoomer will continue to move until it runs into water where the surface tension is already broken, or until it runs out of soap!
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