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Admin Bar Home > Fun Stuff! > Fun with Science > Floating and Sinking

Floating & Sinking Experiments

CAN YOU SINK AN ORANGE?

MATERIALS:

• Bowl
• Water
• Orange

STEPS:

1. Fill the bowl with water. What happens to the orange?
2. See if your friend can get the orange to sink.
3. Take the orange and peel it.
4. Place the peeled orange back in the bowl of water. What happens this time?
5. The orange sinks because the orange peel if full of trapped air pockets, therefore making the orange light for its size (so it floats). When you remove the peel (including the air pockets) the orange weighs a lot for its size. Then it sinks because the orange is denser than the water.

WHICH WATER WILL AN EGG FLOAT IN? 

MATERIALS:

• Table Salt
• Two Bowls
• A Tablespoon
• Warm Tap Water
• Two Eggs
•  A Friend

STEPS:

1. Fill both bowls with warm tap water.
2. Add a few tablespoons of salt to one of the bowls of water and stir it really well, until the salt has dissolved in the water.
3. Carefully place a egg in each bowl.
4. One egg will float and the other will sink. 

Which egg floats? 

 Do you know why?

The salt water is heavier than the plain tap water, so the weight of the egg does not have to push away as much water to make space for itself and therefore it floats.