Does Surface Tension Work?

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Have you ever wondered why a water strider can walk across water without sinking? Well it all has to do with surface tension. Surface tension was discovered by Agnes Pockels around the 1900’s. Her main study was surface science. Surface science is the study of physical and chemical phenomena that occur at the interface of two phases, witch means when two subjects meet and interact. That includes: solid-liquid, solid-gas, solid-vacuum, and liquid-gas interfaces. How does surface tension work? There are many ways to test and observe surface tension. For example, the floating paperclip on water trick. As you may know a paperclip is made of steel or metal, you would think that it would be to dense or heavy to float on water like styrofoam or plastic would because there less dense than water. Well your wrong because surface tension has a strong enough bond. Water has molecules, called water molecules, and the molecules in water are what create the tension and the reason why the tension has such a strong bond. So let me explain. In water molecules there is a oxygen atom bonded to two hydrogen atoms. One side of the atom gives off a partially negative charge at one end and a partially positive charge at the other. The attraction between the partially negative end and the partially positive end is called …show more content…
The hydrogen bonds pull the atoms close together in the water to create the water tension on top. That’s why the paperclip can lap on top of the waters “skin”. I would call it a skin because of the way the molecules are gathered tightly together there almost inseparable. But separating them isn’t impossible. Put the paperclip in the water horizontally and it will puncture the “skin” of the water, separate the molecules temporarily and sink to the bottom. But if you just carefully lay the paper clip onto the water vertically, it should

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