Name: ___________________________________________________________________ Class: ____
Lab Partners: _________________________________________________________________________
Investigating the Properties of Water
AT YOUR TABLE WITH YOUR PARTNERS:
A. Get a penny, a dropper, and a cup of clean water.
1. How many drops of water do you think will fit on the head of a penny? Make your hypothesis here.
2. Using a dropper, slowly drop water onto a penny counting each drop. How many drops of water did fit on
the head of a penny?
3. Draw what the penny looks like, as viewed from the side, before it overflowed.
B. Get a piece of wax paper, a dropper, and a cup of clean water.
4. Place several drops of water on a piece of wax paper. What happens to the water droplets as you roll
them around on the wax paper?
5. What two properties of water do you observe in parts A and B?
Explain these properties in molecular terms.
Now, get a toothpick and the dish soap.
6. Dip the toothpick in dish soap, and then dip it into the water droplet on the wax paper. Draw a diagram
of the result, showing the droplet before and after the insertion of the toothpick (side view).
7. Soap molecules have a polar end and a non-polar end. The polar end is water-soluble and hydrophilic,
and the non-polar end is hydrophobic. The hydrophobic end of the soap molecule disrupts the
________________________ bonds responsible for the properties observed in parts A and B.
C. Get black pepper, dish soap, and a cup of clean water (half-full).
8. Sprinkle a few pinches of black pepper on the surface of the water. What property of water do you
observe?
9. Now, add a drop of soap to the water. What happens to the black pepper?
10. What did the soap do that caused the black pepper to do this? Explain this phenomenon in complete
sentences using your very best science vocabulary.
STATIONS
Station A | Celery: What property of water do you observe with the celery?
Station B | Oil/Water: Use your very best science vocabulary to explain the phenomenon at this station.
Station C | Balloon: Rub the balloon on dry hair or your clothing in order to build up a static charge. Run a slight
but steady stream of water at the tap. Place the balloon near the stream of water (do not get the balloon wet).
1. What happens to the stream of water?
2. What property of water is responsible for this phenomenon?
3. Draw a picture of the balloon next to the stream of water to illustrate the phenomenon you observe.
Assume the balloon is negatively charged. Include the orientation of the water molecules (draw them
Mickey Mouse style, showing the charge distribution) in the stream of water.
Station D | Capillary Tube: Sketch what you observe at this station.
1. What property of water is responsible for this phenomenon?
2. This property is caused by a combination of two properties of water. What are they? Label where they
apply on your sketch.