Can a bowling ball float? The quick answer is “all heavy things sink.” But not so fast…why does an aircraft carrier float but a penny sinks?
Some bowling balls will float and others will sink. All regulation bowling balls are the same size. So size has nothing to do with floating or sinking. Remember, aircraft carriers float on the ocean.
The answer lies in density. The only thing that varies is the stuff that is inside each bowling ball. An 8-pound ball obviously has less material inside it than a 16-pound ball. A 12-pound ball has about the same density of water, which is 1 gram per cubic centimeter. The density is the same, and the ball will float. All bowling balls under 12 pounds will float, because their density is less than that of water.
Archimedes’ Principal says when you put something in water, it
Oil and water don’t mix. Everyone knows that. What is the scientific reason behind why don’t they mix?
Answer: Oil and water don’t mix because of how their molecules are constructed. Water is what is known as a polar molecule. A water molecule is shaped like a V, with an oxygen atom at the bottom point of the V and a hydrogen atom on each of the two top ends. However, there is unequal sharing of electrons between the hydrogen and oxygen atoms. This means that the bottom of the molecule has a negative electrical charge, while the top car- ries a positive charge.
Vegetable oil, on the other hand, is a nonpolar molecule made of long chains of hydrocarbons—strings of carbon atoms bonded to hydrogen atoms. Unlike the water molecule, there is equal sharing of electrons between the carbon and hydrogen atoms. This means that the electrical charges
A few weeks ago on my 9News segment I featured a Seven-Layer Density column. It’s a colorful way to talk about density in the classroom. Well… we thought we had all of our facts straight, but when we inadvertently put in the experiment write-up that oil and water don’t mix because they have different densities, my email box was flooded with concerned teachers, parents, administrators and more, who wanted to set the record straight. Yes, it’s true, oil and water don’t mix because of their intermolecular polarity, not because of density. I love when people actually get involved with the experiments we are posting and care enough about the information to let me know when it isn’t quite up to par.
So, we had our density problem solved, it would seem the Seven-Layer column had experience its fifteen minutes of fame, but, no… this one just wouldn’t die. The day after my news segment, some of our staff noticed that the vegetable oil and rubbing alcohol layers had switched places! Knowing the great response we received before, we opened it up to
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