DRY PAPER UNDERWATER Experiment

Amazing kids science trick to push paper underwater while keeping it dry is a fun and easy educational STEM experiment to demonstrate how air pressure works.

Kids science experiment tricks excite children, and water tricks thrill them even more! So, here is a fun DRY PAPER UNDERWATER experiment to promote STEM education and tinker with little brains! Besides, this experiment is super easy to set up as you will be using items readily available around your home! Most importantly, this fun STEM trick is demonstrating that even though we do not always see gasses, they do take up space. So let’s learn this amazing science trick and push paper underwater while keeping it dry to teach kids about the atmospheric pressure!

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YOU’LL NEED for this KIDS SCIENCE EXPERIMENT TRICK

• a cup or a glass
• a bowl (or a bucket) taller than your cup
• tap water
• letter-size paper
• markers (optional)

HOW to conduct DRY PAPER UNDERWATER Experiment

First, fill your bowl with water about 2/3 full. Secondly, fold the paper and crumble it, but do not squeeze it too tight. Thereafter, fit it inside the cup and push the paper to the bottom of the cup so that when you invert the cup, the paper does not fall out. Then, turn the cup upside-down and, while holding it vertically, slowly push it straight down into the water. (Make sure to push the cup evenly, without tilting to either side.) Count to five. Lastly, gently lift the cup out of the water, keeping it vertically straight. Make sure to tap any excess water! Wolla! Now you can remove the paper and examine whether the paper got wet or remained dry.

Why did the paper NOT get wet? Well, you may think that only the paper is in the cup! However, actually air is in there too! The air prevents the water from entering the cup, thus keeping the paper dry.

Revealing Science Mystery:

Why does the paper remain dry? When you put any cup upside down in the water, there is air inside the cup. The air is pushing out inside, pressing on the walls of the cup and is trying to escape. So, when you put a cup on TOP of water, there is air pressure INSIDE the cup. However, there is also water pressure! The water is trying to come IN the cup and the inside air pressure is trying to expand and come OUT of the cup. But, these two forces are balanced, and the air stays INSIDE the cup (keeping the paper dry) and the water stays OUTSIDE the cup. Besides, the water cannot just force its way IN the cup since it has to overcome the air pressure! So this kids science experiment trick demonstrates that the air does really push with the force we call air pressure. However, when you tilt the cup, some air will come out and bubble up to the surface, and then the water will rush into the cup. Try to experiment! Your little one will be fascinated with all the science and physics going on in this simple to conduct STEM experiment!

See this post on INSTAGRAM HERE.

Please, always supervise your child.

Besides, now, your child can exclaim: “I can take a piece of paper and put it UNDERWATER! And the paper will NOT get wet!” How cool is that? This will definitely score some points amongst the peers!

Let me know in the comments if you give it a try!

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