Fill a 50 ml graduated cylinder with 35 ml of water. Use a pipette to add or remove water to get a precise reading of the meniscus. Make a hook from a paper clip and tie it to a string. Use four different-sized metal balls with hooks. Attach one ball to the paper clip, lower it into the graduated cylinder, read the water level of the graduated cylinder and remove the ball. Record all data. Repeat with the other balls, adding water, if needed, to the cylinder to bring it to the original reading between balls. Weigh each ball on a spring scale. Divide the mass of the ball by its volume to calculate each ball’s density.
Put 150 ml of water in each of two beakers. Put several drops of blue food coloring into one beaker, add a handful of ice chips and put it in the refrigerator. Add several drops of red food coloring to the other beaker and put it in the microwave on high for one minute. Remove the red beaker from the microwave using an over mitt. Take the blue beaker out of the refrigerator. Pour 4 ml of the blue water into a 10 ml graduated cylinder. Use a pipette to add drops of red water very slowly, holding the pipette close to the water level. Record your observations. The water stays in layers because the hotter red water is less dense than the cold blue water Allow the water in the cylinder to come to room temperature and record any changes.
Put 150 ml of water in each of three beakers. In each beaker, put several drops of red, blue or green food coloring. Add 2 teaspoons table salt to the red water, 2 teaspoons sugar to the blue water and stir. Pour 3 ml of the red water in a 10-ml graduated cylinder. Using a pipette close to the surface of the red water, slowly add blue water two to three drops at a time to the graduated cylinder. Record the results. Add green water one drop at a time with the pipette close to the surface of the blue water. The saltwater has the greatest density, followed by the sugar water. Plain water is the least dense.
You will conduct five trials each on four different brands of paper towels. Each sheet must be folded the same way to keep this aspect of the experiment constant. Put 200 ml water in a beaker. Put a folded paper towel into the water, start a stopwatch and remove the paper towel after 20 seconds. Hold the paper towel over the mouth of a funnel inserted in a graduated cylinder. Squeeze as much water as possible from the towel. Record your results. Repeat the process with the remaining four trials of the first brand of towels and five trials each of the other brands. Calculate the average absorbency of each brand. Graph all the results on a bar graph.