How to Place the Paper Clips for the Water Surface for the Tension Experiment

Video Transcript

" Hi this is Scott Thompson from expertvillage.com and today we are going to demonstrate how you can show a group of students that water actually has skin. Next part of the demonstration is going to show that water has skin by floating small objects such as these paper clips right on the water. Trickiest part too of this is to hold it steady as you are lowering it onto the water so it doesn't sink. Sometimes it helps to hold your breath. That one worked. I don't know if the camera is pinking it up but you can actually see how the paper clip is pushing down into the water, and the water is sort of spreading itself away to support the weight of that clip. That is the skin of the water or the surface tension holding it up. We will try another one. Sometimes that happens. If your hands aren't real clean, if you have something like soap on your hands, and it gets on the paper clip, there is a good chance that it isn't going to float. But we'll see; maybe that one is going to poke through on its own. We will try another one here right quick. We got one out of three but that is alright; that is going to happen."