Outdoor Science!

​Now that the weather is finally warming up, here is a cool science experiment that you can try outside! What do you think would happen if you poke pencils through a bag full of water? Will the water leak through the holes or spill out? The answer might surprise you!

For this experiment, you will need a few sharpened pencils, a ziploc bag, and water.

 You will need a sealable plastic bag which can be filled with water (like a Ziploc bag) and a sharpened pencil [1,2]. 

Step 1. Fill the bag halfway with water and seal it closed.
Step 2. Make sure that your pencils are sharp and then poke one of the pencils through one side of the bag and halfway through the other. Be sure not to push the pencil all the way through the bag! 

What did you notice? Did the bag leak?
 
The bag does not leak because the bag is made of a polymer (which is just a fancy term for a flexible chain made of molecules). When you put a pencil through the bag, the molecules spread apart then place themselves around the pencil. This means the bag stretches just enough to let the pencil pass while keeping a watertight seal around the pencil.
What would happen if you put more than one pencil through the bag? Give it a try! What do you think would happen if you poked pencils through a different material like a water bottle?
 
Written by Stephanie
Edited by Christina