Capillary action in plants experiment with paper towel - Science experiments for kids

Capillary action in plants experiment with paper towel - Science experiments for kids

You'll need:
• Two glasses
• Color water
• A paper towel or a tissue paper
Capillary effect: The movement of a liquid along the surface of a solid caused by the attraction of molecules of the liquid to the molecules of the solid.
• Take two glasses
• Put them side by side
• Fill one of the glass with color water
• Now take a paper towel
• Pin fold it or fold it into middle
• Dip one of the ends of the paper into the color water and put the other end into the glass one beside it
• Leave it for few hours
• You can observe that the color water gets transferred into the empty glass through paper towel
• Its keeps flowing into the glass till they attain equal amount of water in both of them

A Closer Look

Molecules of water are naturally attracted to each other and form temporary hydrogen bonds with each other; their attraction for each other on the surface of a liquid, gives rise to surface tension. But they are also attracted in a similar way to other molecules, called hydrophilic molecules, such as those in the fibers of a towel; these attractive forces can draw water upward against the force of gravity to a certain degree.

[NCorteza]

Nice, u have just helped me out, now i know what to do for my science project. thx :)

[elearnin]

thankyou
THANKYOU
:)

Glad you liked it :)

[puppygaming]

That sure was “Cool”! Love from Bulgaria !!!!

[dazzlerby]

Good positive thinking but it would be more cost efficient to let it flow, as in hydro turbine. This capillary stuff is what helps a lot of living things to tick over nicely, including plants/trees and humans.

[gordongeymuller]

This will also work will a celery stick. It doesn't take nearly as long.

[Gameknight]

Look, this experiment was great, but like

say "cool" one more time and I'll cool your body temperature to -12K

[heyitsthatoneguy]

All I see is cranberry juice and it looks delicious

[anteconfig]

What happens if you raise the second cup a bit and you don't allow the napkin to touch the bottom?

[dmoschos]

So... where does the energy for rising the water up comes from ??

[chriswentzel]

So this proves water always finds level too lol

[shivamtripathi]

if the water is not colour then also it will work right?

[yeetusfeetus]

Omg WATER IS WATER stop making it complicated

[carltrotter]

So is Capillary action a self-starting siphon?

[andrewcresser]

That wasn't coloured water! It was merlo! ADMIT IT!!!

[samaelaunweor]

Blood color liquid with a sanitary pad like device.
Oh boy, you ask for trouble in the comments.
I guess all the other colorants are depleted.

[timmontgomery]

Like my pond has this problem too through the folds in the liner 😢

[tanupanwalkar]

Good explanation. Is this experiment for 7 year child

[PhoenixSunsNZ]

Does this work with plants also? Like if I cut off a plant stalk could I place it in both cups and would it suck up the liquid to the other cup?

[mikedoingmikethings]

how many inches can a water rise? does elevation affects capillary effect? if so how by how much per 500' of elevation etc. Thanks!

[rorriannroch]

I did this using a purple food color tablet left from easter and a paper towel The glass that the purple water transferred to was light blue. I cannot figure this out. Do you have any answers? The purple color went up the side of the purple towel and right at the point where it was bent turned blue as the liquid transferred to the empty cup.