Advanced Teacher Version

Surface Tension Lab - Teacher

Key Concepts: Surface tension is a property of a liquid. It is when there is a strong attraction between the molecules that cause them to link together and remain uniform. When the molecules possess weak positive interactions, as is the case with rubbing alcohol, surface tension will be small compared to other liquids. Cohesion is the attraction of molecules among its own kind. Because of cohesion, water and other liquids form thin films and drops. Adhesion is the attraction between different substances. Adhesion powers a certain process that allows water molecules to move upward through a narrow tube. The attraction of water to the walls of a tube sucks the water up more strongly than gravity pulls it down (i.e. water moving up a plants roots).

Part I: Drops of Water on a Penny1

Materials: Pennies Water Soap Rubbing Alcohol Dropper Paper towels Calculator (required for advanced lab only) Pre-Lab Questions: 1. In your own words, define surface tension.
Surface tension is a property of a liquid that can be either a strong or weak attraction between molecules.

2. Predict how many drops will fit on the penny

These are predictions there are no right or wrong answers! Ideally, the student may be able to predict that the number of droplets will have the relationship rubbing alcohol < soapy water < clean water.

a. Of clean water. b. Of soapy water. c. Of rubbing alcohol. 3. Explain the reasoning behind your predictions in Question 2.
Advanced students would ideally be able to support their prediction by stating that more water droplets will fit on the penny because it has the highest surface tension followed by soapy water and rubbing alcohol.

Procedure:
1

Adapted from www.middleschoolscience.com

Advanced Teacher Version

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Fill a dropper with water. Place the penny, heads up, on top of a paper towel. Using your dropper, add drops of water to the top of the penny until it overflows. Record the number of drops the surface of the penny can hold in Table 1 below. Repeat steps #1-4 four more times. Repeat steps #1-5 using soapy water, and then rubbing alcohol. Be sure to rinse and dry the penny thoroughly between experiments.

Data Table 1: Drops of liquid on a penny. Record your data in the table below and calculate the average for each liquid. Liquid Water Soapy Water Rubbing Alcohol Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Trial 4 Trial 5 37 33 30 47 29 22 44 33 23 37 38 25 38 32 22 Average 40.6 33.0 24.4 Standard Deviation 4.1 2.9 3.0

Values provided in the table were attained from a test run of the experiment, and are provided to indicate the range of values you might expect to see during the experiment. Student results will vary.

Post-Lab Questions: 1. Calculate the mean average for each liquid by adding the values together and dividing by the number of trials. Enter these values into Table 1. 2. Calculate the standard deviation for each liquid using the instructions below. Enter these values into Table 1. Calculating standard deviation: Note: The formula to calculate standard deviation is the following: =

( x - x) N

Standard deviation Summation symbol, which indicates that you need to take the sum of whatever follows the symbol - in this 2 case ( x - x ) . Mean average Value of interest, in this case the number of drops Number of trials

1. Write down the # of droplets of clean water that fit onto the penny in Column A of Table 2 for the indicated trial. 2. Write down the average # of droplets of clean water that fit onto the penny (calculated in Question 1) in Column B of Table 2. 3. Subtract column B from column A (A-B) and write this value in Column C. It is okay if the value is a negative number. 4. Square the values in Column C and record these values in Column D. 5. Add all the values in Column D together and record this number in Column E. 2

Advanced Teacher Version

6. Divide the value in Column E by 5 (the number of trials you performed). Record this value in Column F. 7. Youre almost there! Take the square root of the value in Column F and record the solution in Column G. You have now calculated the standard deviation! Write this value in Data Table 1. 8. If time allows, repeat the process for Soapy Water (Table 3) and Rubbing Alcohol (Table 4). Table 2: Calculating Standard Deviation for Water Measurements Water A Trial # 1 2 3 4 5 B C
( x - x)

D
(x - x)
2

F
2

G
2

x
37 47 44 37 38

x
40.6 40.6 40.6 40.6 40.6

(x - x)

(x - x) N

( x - x) N

-3.6 6.4 3.4 -3.6 -2.6

12.96 40.96 11.56 12.96 6.76

85.2

17.04

4.1

Table 3: Calculating Standard Deviation for Soapy Water Measurements Soapy Water A Trial # 1 2 3 4 5 B C
( x - x)

D
( x - x)
2

F
2

G
2

x
33 29 33 38 32

x
33.0 33.0 33.0 33.0 33.0

( x - x)

(x - x) N

( x - x) N

0.0 -4.0 0.0 5.0 -1.0

0.0 16.0 0.0 25.0 1.0

42

8.4

2.9

Table 4: Calculating Standard Deviation for Rubbing Alcohol Measurements Rubbing Alcohol B A Trial # 1 2 3 4 5 C
( x - x)

D
(x - x)
2

F
2

G
2

x
30 22 23 25 22

x
24.4 24.4 24.4 24.4 24.4

(x - x)

(x - x) N

( x - x) N

5.6 -2.4 -1.4 0.6 -2.4

31.36 5.76 1.96 0.36 5.76

45.2

9.0

3.0

Advanced Teacher Version

What does your calculated standard deviation tell you about the reproducibility of your results? The standard deviation tells the researcher what range they should expect their values to fall in with respect to the mean average. For example, if the average number of water drops that a penny can hold is 41 and the standard deviation for that measurement is 4, then I would expect that if I repeated the experiment the majority of my results would fall between 37 and 45. More specifically, approximately 68% of the results should fall within one standard deviation of the mean and 95% should fall within 2 standard deviations of the mean (in the example above, two standard deviations would range between 33 and 49 droplets. The smaller the standard deviation, the closer the results are to the mean average and the more reproducible they are. How do you think calculating the standard deviation might help a researcher to determine if, for example, the number of drops of soapy water is significantly different from the number of drops of clean water that fit onto the penny? Calculating standard deviation provides a basis for comparison. For example, if you do the penny experiment with water and get 38 droplets and then repeat the experiment with rubbing alcohol and get 37 droplets, how do you know if there is a significant difference between the surface tension of water and rubbing alcohol? If we repeat the experiments four more times, we may get the sample data listed in Table 1 with an average of 40.6 for water and an average of 33.0 for rubbing alcohol. Then we can calculate a standard deviation of 4.1 for water and 2.9 for rubbing alcohol. Thus, we can expect more than 2/3 of the results to fall between 37 and 45 drops for water and between 30 and 36. If the difference between the two liquids is not significant, then there will be a large overlap in these ranges. In this case, the ranges are distinct enough to determine that a significant difference does exist despite the lack of sensitivity of the experimental set-up. 5. Plot your results on the bar graph below: 4.

3.

Figure 1: Bar graph of average number of drops of liquid on a penny. Plot the average numbers on the bar graph below for each liquid.
60 50 40 30 20 10

Average # of Drops on a Penny

0

Water

Soapy Water

Rubbing Alcohol

6.

Which liquid do you think has the highest surface tension? Why?

Advanced Teacher Version

Water has the highest surface tension, because the number of drops of water that stayed on the penny was highest. 7. What is the surface tension of water? What is the surface tension of rubbing alcohol? (You can find these values online or ask your teacher.) Was your prediction in Question 1 right or wrong?
Surface Tension of Water (at 20C) = 72.8 mN/m Surface Tension of Isopropyl Alcohol (at 20C) = 23.0 mN/m 2

8. What are the units of surface tension? Hint: surface tension is measured in force per unit length. N/m (Newton per meter) OR dyne/cm (dyne per centimeter).
Note: surface tension can also be thought of as energy per unit area and is sometimes referred to as surface energy. Regardless, the units work out to be the same

9.

What variables might affect surface tension values?

Temperature, the liquid itself (e.g. alcohol vs. water), contamination, solutes, addition of soaps.

10. List two examples of surface tension in every day life:

There are many different examples of surface tension in everyday life, but, if you are having trouble thinking of examples, I have listed some interesting ones below.

Water Striders

Dew Drops

Note that the actual surface tension of rubbing alcohol will be slightly higher than the value for pure isopropyl alcohol, because rubbing alcohol is 70% isopropyl alcohol and 30% water.

Advanced Teacher Version

Lungs use surfactant (soap, for example is a surfactant) to lower surface tension and enable the lungs to expand when we inhale. Without the surfactant, the lungs would collapse.

Bubbles! Soap must be added to water to create bubbles, because it lowers the surface tension of the liquid.

Mercury has a surface tension of ~486 mN/m at 20C compared to 72.8 mN/m for water. This is why spilled mercury will spontaneously form small balls that roll around. Do NOT ever handle mercury without gloves, as it is a highly toxic material.

3. Below is a cartoon depicting three water molecules. Please do the following: a. Label each atom of the molecule H or O (for hydrogen and oxygen, respectively). b. Indicate the partial charge of each atom positive (+) or negative (-). c. Draw lines to indicate how you think the molecules bond or interact with one another.
O H O H + + H H + + + H + O H +

Advanced Teacher Version

Part II: Tie Dye Milk

Materials: Milk Food coloring Toothpick Soap Bowl Procedure: 1. Fill bowl full with milk. 2. Place a few droplets of food coloring into the milk (have fun making your design!). 3. Draw a picture of the design you made, in the box labeled before under Question 1 4. Dip one end of the toothpick into dishwashing soap. 5. Touch the soapy end of the toothpick to the milk surface. 6. Draw a picture of the design you made after you touched the surface of the milk with the soapy toothpick in the box labeled after under Question 1. Post-Lab Questions: 1. Draw a before and after image of your experiment.

Before

After

2. Describe what happened when you touched the surface of the milk with the soapy end of the toothpick.
When students touch the soapy toothpick to the surface of the milk, they will see a very rapid movement of the milk outward. The food coloring helps students visualize this movement.

3. How would you explain your observations? When the soap is added to the surface of the milk it will spread along the surface and cause a rapid decrease in surface tension, which is what causes the observed reaction. I have heard it likened to the popping of a balloon, where you are poking a hole in the skin of the milk. 7

Advanced Teacher Version

4. Soap molecules are hydrophobic/hydrophilic? How does this affect surface tension? Soap molecules are hydrophobic (water-fearing). This is important because the soap molecules do not want to be surrounded by the water molecules and therefore move to the air/water interface. When the soap molecules move to the interface, they displace water molecules at the surface. Basically, you can think of it as the soap molecules pushing the water molecules apart and weakening the bond between them. This causes a decrease in surface tension. The decrease in surface tension should be concentrationdependent until the soap molecules fill or saturate the water surface. 5. If you repeat the experiment do you get the same result? Why do you think this is? You should get the same result if you repeat the experiment. However, the effect will be less dramatic with successive trials as the surface becomes saturated with soap molecules. 6. Draw a cartoon image of water and soap molecules in the milk in the space provided below. Indicate what molecules are present in the bulk and what molecules are present at the surface of the milk.

Note that the soap molecules are primarily located at the surface and not in the bulk liquid. The soap or surfactant is composed of a hydrophilic head and a hydrophobic tail. The tails like to be in contact with the air and avoid contact with the water molecules as much as possible. The students drawing does not need to be this detailed, but they should understand that the soap is near the surface because it possesses a hydrophobic entity that does not like to be near the water molecules.