Adventures in a Messy Life

Hands on learning for active learners

  • Home page
    • Start Here
    • About Us
    • Get all of the posts now!
    • Disclosure and other blogging information
  • Homeschooling
    • Homeschool Curriculum
    • Why I homeschool (comments from a former teacher)
    • Homeschooling and the Holidays
  • History and geography
    • Ancient History Lessons
    • Modern History lessons
    • American History Lessons
    • LEGO history
  • Science
  • Bible Curriculum
  • STORE

Science Sunday: For real Water and Air Pressure

June 24, 2012 Ticia 13 Comments

 

 

So, obviously I never got that post fixed last week.  First I was wrongly reported as having malware, so I had to work on that.  Then I had two very hyper little girls who wanted lots of attention.  LOTS of it.

007

THE QUESTION: Why does the water stay in the straw when you put your finger on it?

 

THEORIES: There’s something stopping it from getting out.  We don’t know what.

006

First I had them figure out what I was doing differently than them that kept the water in the straw.  They tried several different ways of holding the straw to duplicate my keeping the water in, but didn’t figure it out until I showed them what I did very slowly.  Then I heard:

 

“OH!  It’s just like the Thumb pot at Williamsburg!”

Talk about making a Mom proud.  They’d drawn the connection between this and the gardening tool they’d seen one time.  It also work based on air pressure holding in the water until you take your thumb off the top.

 

This one is from Farm to Market.

 

 

But, they still hadn’t completely figured out what was keeping the water in while my thumb was on the straw, so on to the next part.

 

008

Next we did the water and air pressure holding the index card on even though the cup is upside down.  A similar principle holds the paper up as holds the water in.  I asked leading questions:

What’s under the cup.

If there is no liquid in the cup, what is still in the cup?

After a while they realized there was air in the cup, and there was air pushing on the paper and air pushing on the water in the straw.

 

See, if I put my thumb on top of the straw, there is no place for the air to move into where the water is, it creates a vacuum, and the water cannot move out.  The same theory works with the cup and the water.  If the water is to the top of the cup, there is nowhere for the paper to go because the air pushes it up while the water is pushing it down.  Of course eventually the water soaks through and the paper falls, but for a short time it’s “Amazing Mommy!”

 

So, that was my quick science experiment we had because I was trying to cool down my son’s tea.

 

Let’s see what others did this week:

No Doubt Learning shared about their solar week.  I’m wondering what the results of her evaporation experiment would be here in Texas during the summer.

 

I don’t think I’m brave enough to try the light bulb experiment All Things Beautiful did in her microwave.  I have a bad track record with fires……..

 

The Usual Mayhem shared the science behind a brain freeze and some suggested cures they tried.  I figured at least one of us is going to get one this summer, I also found out I’m 90% more likely to get one because I get migraines, well BOO.

Photobucket

science grocery store science, Science Sunday

Comments

  1. nodoubtlearning.com says

    June 24, 2012 at 3:57 pm

    Thanks for sharing my evaporation experiment. It would be very interesting to see how quickly water evaporates in Texas with all your humidity! Great idea to experiment with why water stays in a straw! Have a great week!
    Andrea

    Reply
    • Ticia says

      June 26, 2012 at 1:56 am

      Up here in Austin, it's not quite as humid, but it's super hot!

  2. MaryAnne K says

    June 24, 2012 at 11:59 am

    Migraines are no fun!

    I love your experiment. I wouldn't be brave enough to try the light bulb in the microwave experiment, either. My fridge catches fire with me sitting still in the living room, after all (just glad I was home for that one…)

    It's been so humid here, I wonder if the water would evaporate at all…

    Reply
    • Ticia says

      June 26, 2012 at 1:56 am

      I'm still living down the candle incident from several years ago, so I kind of ruled it out.

  3. Kelly says

    June 24, 2012 at 1:46 pm

    This looks like a fun and simple experiment. I'll have to do this experiment with my kids. It's great that your kids made the connection with a past experience.
    Kelly at Little Wonders' Days

    Reply
  4. sunnymama says

    June 24, 2012 at 2:24 pm

    What a great experiment! Glad to have found Science Sunday. 🙂

    Reply
  5. Phyllis says

    June 24, 2012 at 3:58 pm

    I love your experimental investigations!

    Reply
  6. Wonder Mom says

    June 25, 2012 at 1:02 am

    Yes- your kiddos ARE rock stars! They are making cross-curricular connections- AWESOMENESS!!!

    Reply
    • Ticia says

      June 26, 2012 at 1:57 am

      I know, I was super impressed.

  7. Raising a Happy Child says

    June 25, 2012 at 5:45 pm

    Oh, this experiment is on my list to do too – air pressure is so hard to explain though 🙂

    Reply
  8. Kirsten @ homeschool discoveries says

    June 25, 2012 at 6:29 pm

    Hi! Sorry it my link appeared twice…I got an error message the first time so I refreshed…but it looks like it went thru both times. Sorry about that. Hope you can easily delete one. This is my first time linking up here and I'm looking forward to reading some of the other linked blogs as well!

    Reply
    • Ticia says

      June 26, 2012 at 1:57 am

      I can fix it super easy, no problem. Glad to have you link up!

Trackbacks

  1. Really Big List of Science Experiments for Kids (with Linky) says:
    July 10, 2013 at 10:02 am

    […] Water and Air Pressure from Adventures in Mommydom […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Ticia Adventures in Mommydom Hi, I'm Ticia! This is the adventures of my family in life and learning. Follow along with us as we share our adventures. We're having a lot of fun and learning as we go.

Help!!!! I need to know:

Categories

 book and a movie combo

Copyright © 2023 ·