Praxis: Magic bottle

By Medicine Hat News on April 28, 2018.

It is that time of the year and we are busy preparing and planning our summer science camps in partnership with Medicine Hat College. I can’t reveal the new camps just yet, but this week, I thought I would give you a sneak peek at one of the activities you may be doing if you join us. Keep reading each week for more clues on the exciting summer offerings! Let`s get started.

*Remember to ask an adult before doing this experiment.

Materials

– rice

– two 500 mL plastic water-type bottles

– two wooden dowels or pencils

– funnel

Procedure

1. Using the funnel, fill the two plastic bottles with rice. Leave about two centimetres from the top of the bottle.

2. Stick one pencil into one of the bottles filled with rice.

3. Try to lift the bottle up.

4. What happens?

5. Set aside for now.

6. Take the second bottle of rice and bang it on the counter a few times.

7. Observe what happens.

8. Using the funnel, add some more rice to this bottle.

9. Tap the bottom of the bottle again.

10. Continue to do this and add rice until there is no longer any room in the bottle to add rice.

11. Stick the pencil in the rice.

12. Try and lift the bottle up.

13. What happens?

What is going on?

You made the impossible possible in this experiment! When you added rice to the bottle, it filled up all of the space inside that plastic bottle. Or so you thought! As you attempted to lift the first bottle, it should have slipped off the pencil, fell over and perhaps spilled rice everywhere (sorry). You easily saw that it is impossible to lift up.

On the other hand, when you attempted to lift the bottle of rice that you kept banging on the counter and filling up, you should have easily been able to lift it. This is because of friction. As you pack more and more rice into that bottle, you are removing the space that is between the grains of rice. It is becoming tightly compacted, squeezing out all of the space. When you push the pencil into the rice, you should have been able to feel how tightly packed these grains of rice are. As a result of there not being any space left, grains of rice begin to push on the pencil. Due to this friction, you are able to lift up the bottle. Amazing!

Keep reading each week for more sneak peeks into what our summer camps have to offer!

Patty Rooks is senior scientific consultant at PRAXIS, “Connecting Science To The Community.” Contact Praxis at praxis@praxismh.ca, http://www.praxismh.ca, Tweet or follow us @PraxisMedHat, or friend us on Facebook.

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