Penny water holder

Filling up this penny with water up to the bronze brim was surprisingly easy. After remembering what I had learned previously, I realized that cohesion and adhesion were responsible for this cool bubble of water sitting on the face of Abe. Adhesion is a property when water molecules stick to an other object. The molecules stuck to the penny, which then allowed cohesion to happen. Cohesion is a property when molecules attract to each other or "stick together." The molecules are holding each others little molecule hands to stay in a bubble like stack on top of the penny. Although this interlock is pretty cool, it isn't very strong, and can be broken and spill just by adding a little too much water to the brim of the penny. Also, if any non polar substance touched the water, the bubble would collapse as well. This is because water is polar. 

     Carefully putting more water onto the penny, too much and it could all be over!

Interesting water fountain

Unfortunately, I couldn't personally get the magic water bowl to sprout when I was the one rubbing it. Luckily, my lab group had Jessica, who was a real natural at it and kept it going for a while so that we could observe it. 

While rubbing the handles, the handles begin to vibrate, and they also make this little noise along with it. The vibrations of the handles then enter resonance with the bronze material that is inside the bowl. This creates the waves/little crinkles in the water. And also that low noise. 

Resonance is the natural occurring vibration that is determined by the object at hand. So the reason that only some people can get the bowl to work is because they do the correct rhythm of vibrations, while others are off, thus not matching the natural vibration pattern that the objects material already has programmed. Also, it is the concept responsible for the noise that we hears through out the lab. 

This snapshot from the video shows the little ripples forming in the water as she finds the materials natural vibration.

Boiling water in paper cup

The boiling water in the paper cup lab was one of the coolest. It seems ridiculous going into it, but coming out you get a great example of science.

The water inside the cup moves the heat away from the source (Bunsen burner flame.) This happens through convection. It continues to happen until the water reaches 100 degrees C, boiling point. While the water heats up to eventually boil, it draws heat away from the paper cup which allows the cup to not reach the temperature of burning.  

Convection is heat transfer by motion, when the fluid being heated moves away from the source of heat, taking the energy with it.  It explains why hot air rises and why hot water is less dense than cold water. It also is responsible for why water can boil. As warm water already heated by the heat source rises, colder water at the surface descends, and the cycle continues until boiling. 

Measuring the water after it has started boiling

Although the cup was burnt at the bottom, it did not catch fire due to convection.