The results came in. You would think that dripping water on a penny wouldn't be that hard. At first I simply held a penny underneath a dripping faucet but the force of such large droplets falling on the penny simply made it splash over the edge on the first drop.
Fair enough, just get a little eyedropper The problem is I don't have an eyedropper. So I used a small straw instead. i simply dipped it in the water and held it above the penny. I was trying to be as careful as possible but somehow my brother must have super-hearing because he woke up. I managed to lock myself and my soap in the bathroom before he saw me. I did the experiment three times with both soapy and non soapy water and compared the averages of the two. However I encountered another problem that might affect the results. I couldn't find hand soap so I used dish soap instead
Average Amount of Water That Fit on a Penny: 16
Average Amount of Soapy Water Drops: 24
I learned something else about Surface Tension: it is NOT the same as Viscosity(the thickness of a liquid).
Another fun fact: The reason some bugs, like a water-strider, seem to be able to walk on water is because of Surface Tension. If the water has high Surface tension it bonds together better and makes a "skin" that the water strider, being extremely light, can stand on
I will hunt for the hand soap and see if that makes any difference.
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I'm back with my Hand Soap results
Average Amount Hand Soap Droplets: 15.3
So we can come away from this knowing that Hand Soap mixed with water has a lower Surface Tension than water but Dawn Dish Soap mixed with water has a higher Surface Tension even though both had similar viscosity.
The Reason: I did some research and the reason that hand soap mixed with water has a lower Surface tension is because it disrupts the bonds between the hydrogen atoms (or molecules I'm not sure which) in water. If you really want to be fancy here is a full explanation:
Soap is like a magnet. Each soap drop has a positive and a negative side. One side of it is hydrophylic, which basically means that it likes water. The other side is hydrophobic meaning it has an aversion to water. So just imagine the soap as the magnet I mentioned earlier. The Hydrophylic side will try its best to face towards the water, which works out nice because the hydrophobic side wants to face the air. The Surface tension is lower because of the unbalanced force at the surface of the water.
Okay I'm getting a bit tired. Now the thing that confuses me is soap bubbles. How do Soap bubbles form. I know they are formed by Surface tension and that they must have soap to stabilize them. Regular bubbles dissolve. Is it possible that soap bubbles are caused when the hydrophobic end of soap faces water? After all, in the case of a magnet if one end is made to face the wrong side of another magnet it pushes the other magnet away. I'm thinking that the soap would be pushed out of the water, forming a bubble. i am probably wrong. i will post my notes on soap bubbles later.
Average Amount Hand Soap Droplets: 15.3
So we can come away from this knowing that Hand Soap mixed with water has a lower Surface Tension than water but Dawn Dish Soap mixed with water has a higher Surface Tension even though both had similar viscosity.
The Reason: I did some research and the reason that hand soap mixed with water has a lower Surface tension is because it disrupts the bonds between the hydrogen atoms (or molecules I'm not sure which) in water. If you really want to be fancy here is a full explanation:
Soap is like a magnet. Each soap drop has a positive and a negative side. One side of it is hydrophylic, which basically means that it likes water. The other side is hydrophobic meaning it has an aversion to water. So just imagine the soap as the magnet I mentioned earlier. The Hydrophylic side will try its best to face towards the water, which works out nice because the hydrophobic side wants to face the air. The Surface tension is lower because of the unbalanced force at the surface of the water.
Okay I'm getting a bit tired. Now the thing that confuses me is soap bubbles. How do Soap bubbles form. I know they are formed by Surface tension and that they must have soap to stabilize them. Regular bubbles dissolve. Is it possible that soap bubbles are caused when the hydrophobic end of soap faces water? After all, in the case of a magnet if one end is made to face the wrong side of another magnet it pushes the other magnet away. I'm thinking that the soap would be pushed out of the water, forming a bubble. i am probably wrong. i will post my notes on soap bubbles later.
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