Traveling Water Experiment

Have you seen traveling water, i.e. water traveling from one cup to another without being close together or one directly above the other.

It can be easily done with the help of a string!

In this experiment, you will find out that water doesn’t just flow in river.

It can flow on a string, too.

It’s not magic. It’s science!

What you need

• 2 cups
• a long string (be sure to use cotton twine or strings that can absorb water. Polyester strings won’t do)
• food coloring (optional)
• water
• scotch tape

Regency Natural Cooking TwineQuality Park White Cotton 10-Ply Medium StringOXO Good Grips 100-Percent Natural Cotton Twine

Steps

1. Tape one end of the string to the inside bottom of a cup.
2. Fill the other cup with water (and food coloring if you want) and put the free end of the string in the water (not taped).
3. Lift the cup with water up above the other, but not directly over it. Hold it far enough that the string is taut. Be careful not to pull the string out of either cup.
4. Slowly pour the water out of the top cup onto the string. Remember to keep it taut at all times. Observe what happens.
5. Now, soak the entire string in water and try again. You should be able to pour the water straight from the top cup to the bottom cup through the string.

Why

This traveling water experiment has demonstrated two important properties of water.

Cohesion: Water molecules are attracted to one another and so they tend to stick together.

Adhesion: Water molecules are also attracted to molecules of other objects and so they tend to stick to objects such as a string.

When you first poured the water, although water molecules were attracted to the string, adhesion wasn’t as strong as gravity pulling the water down.

But when you tried again after soaking the string in water, water molecules were not only attracted to the string, but they were also attracted to the water molecules in the string.

Adhesion and cohesion together prevented the water from dripping straight down.

Instead, the water flowed along the string down to the bottom cup.

Want to see a demonstration?

Here’s a well made video from Sick Science (I have not been able to make it look clear on my camera Still working on it 🙂 )

Explore

• Now that you know about cohesion and adhesion, repeat this experiment using other liquids such as milk, juice, soda and see how cohesion and adhesion vary in each material.
• Using different types of strings to explore more.

For the inquisitive minds, here are some super cool water experiments and the What is the water cycle is really awesome.