Today for Science we did

Why Does the Water Rise?

You’ll have to watch closely...

You’ll have to watch closely and use everything that you know about air in order to explain the mystery of the rising water. You heard right! Air is the key to why the water rises in this experiment... but you'll have to do the experiment yourself to find out just how air affects the water.

Materials

• Candle and matches
• Pie pan or dish
• Juice bottle, jar, or clear vase
• Water
• Food colouring
• Matches

We followed the instruction and set on our way to discovery. Then we had questions to ask and talked our way to understanding.

http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/00000198 - Great website to check out

The Why.

Why are there bubbles when you place the jar over the candle?
The candle flame heats the air in the vase, and this hot air expands. Some of the expanding air escapes out from under the vase — you see some bubbles escaping

Why does the water go up the jar?

When the flame goes out, the air in the vase cools down and the cooler air contracts. The cooling air inside of the vase creates a vacuum.

Simply put, the water would rise at a steady rate if the oxygen being consumed were the main contributing factor (rather than experiencing the rapid rise when the flame is extinguished).

What has air pressure have to do with it?

This imperfect vacuum is created due to the low pressure inside the vase and the high pressure outside of the vase the expansion and contraction of the gases within the bottle.

Room 17