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: Why do water striders walk on water?

October 24, 2010 Ticia 15 Comments

We read about how water striders walk on water.  Well, obviously you can’t just walk on water, so how do they do that?

 

Answer: they bend the rules.

 

037

 

Supplies needed: small bowl of water, a piece of toilet paper, small needle

 

 

 

 

Procedure:  rip a piece of toilet paper into fourths.  Place the toilet paper on top of the water, and gently place the needle on top (like in the photo above).

039

 
Now, if you’ve done this right, the toilet paper will be saturated by the water and the needle will float on the surface of the water.  It’s very cool.

 

 

 

038

Why does this work?

 

Because water molecules have a very strong molecular bond they want to stick together.  So, the surface tension of the water holds the needle up, if you do it correctly.

 

That is why the water strider is able to walk on water.  Great wow factor to your kids.

042

 

Then we of course had to see if it would work with a normal piece of paper, and it did. 

 

So, now we know how and why water striders can walk.

science flying creatures, Science Sunday, zoology

Comments

  1. Christy says

    October 24, 2010 at 11:46 am

    That is a very cool experiment.

    Reply
  2. An Almost Unschooling Mom says

    October 24, 2010 at 12:41 pm

    D was fascinated with those little creatures this summer.

    Reply
  3. Jolanthe says

    October 24, 2010 at 1:12 pm

    Our kids still think it's amazing whenever they see one, and it's so fun to hear them tell me the WHY behind it. 🙂

    Reply
  4. Phyllis says

    October 24, 2010 at 1:27 pm

    This is cool. I have seen it done with lowering the needle down on the surface with thread and then slowly pulling the thread away, but this seems like a much better way of doing it! Thanks for showing us.

    Reply
  5. Raising a Happy Child says

    October 24, 2010 at 1:32 pm

    Great experiment!

    Reply
  6. Debbie says

    October 24, 2010 at 1:36 pm

    I am going to remember this experiment as I know Selena is going to discover the water striders some day. Great experiment!

    Reply
  7. Joyful Learner says

    October 24, 2010 at 3:08 pm

    We'll have to do this one day! It's amazing how quickly water striders jump around in water!

    Reply
  8. child central station says

    October 24, 2010 at 6:49 pm

    This is a great experiment! Ds is going to love it! Thanks for sharing and for hosting Science Sunday!

    Reply
  9. Wonder Mom says

    October 24, 2010 at 8:10 pm

    Wonderful experiment- and I like how y'all extended it with paper.

    Reply
  10. MaryAnne says

    October 24, 2010 at 8:55 pm

    Very cool! We'll be trying this one =)

    Reply
  11. Discovering Montessori says

    October 24, 2010 at 9:52 pm

    SO COOL ! Your topics for science always amazes me. Thank you for sharing.

    Reply
  12. Valerie @ Frugal Family Fun Blog says

    October 25, 2010 at 1:00 am

    Great experiment!!

    Reply
  13. Jenny says

    October 25, 2010 at 2:20 am

    I like! I'm reading on my phone and can only see a few words at a time so when you started the sentence about “of course we had to try…” I thought for sure you were going to say you guys tried to walk on water.

    Reply
  14. Brimful Curiosities says

    October 25, 2010 at 3:42 am

    Awesome experiment. Water striders are very interesting creatures and they are fun to photograph!

    After this experiment your kids would probably enjoy this little Do Not Open Bottle Prank that works thanks to surface tension. https://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/00000107

    Reply
  15. Elise says

    October 25, 2010 at 7:00 am

    What fascinating creatures and an interesting experiment.

    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 ·