I love this experiment! It really has to be seen to be believed. Let's get cracking with some scientific suction!
What Do I Need?
- A plate
- A water bottle
- Some food colouring (optional but cool!)
- Blue Tac
- Matches
How Do I Do It?
STEP1 - First pour a thin layer of water onto your plate (It's a really cool addition to dye this with some food colouring if you've got it!)
STEP2 - Next up - build yourself a match tower! Roll a blob of Blue Tac into a cylinder shape and then stab 5 matches into the top so you have a match tower (as shown!).
STEP3 - Light your match tower and quickly pop your empty bottle of water over the top! The water will get 'sucked' up into the bottle and this will leave the plate almost dry!
What’s Going On?
The wrong explanation for this experiment is given out all over the place. People describing the air as being "eaten"! No no no!
Here's what's happening! As you put the bottle over the flame the air inside the bottle starts to heat up.
As it gets hotter and hotter that air expands and you'll see some of it bubbles out!
Then the oxygen runs out and so the flames go out. The air inside the bottle cools down and gets smaller and the water is actually 'pushed' into the bottle by the 'normal' air pressure in the room!
More Fun Please! - Experiment Like A Real Scientist!
- How does changing the number of matches change the experiment?
- How can you change the experiment to suck up the most water possible?
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