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Invert a small test-tube
or pen cap inside a 1.5 L plastic coke
bottle full of water and screw the lid
on.
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Have just enough air trapped
in the tube or cap so it only just floats.
You might have to add a blob of Blu-Tack
or Plasticine.
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Screw the cap on and squeeze
the sides. Your "diver" sinks!
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Let the sides go again
and the "diver" rises to the top again.
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Try this:
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PREDICT: Ask your
students "What will happen when I
squeeze the sides?"
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OBSERVE: Watch
what happens, remembering to make sure
the cap is screwed on tight!
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EXPLAIN: What does
this show us? (by using a glass test-tube
you would see that the air bubble inside
seems to get smaller as the tube fills
with more water). Seniors might like to
consider the pressure the water exerts
on the air space as you squeeze the sides.
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PREDICT: Ask your
students "What will happen when I
release the sides again?"
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OBSERVE: Watch
what happens. If using a glass test-tube,
you would see that the air bubble inside
seems to expand pushing the water out
of the tube.
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EXPLAIN: What does
this show us?
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If you used a test-tube you will have
noticed that when you squeezed the side of the bottle,
the air bubble inside got smaller and more water
entered the test-tube due the pressure of your hand.
It displaced less water, so lost buoyancy
and sank.
Letting the sides of the bottle go
again allowed the trapped air (which was compressed)
to push the water in the tube out again, so the
tube became more buoyant, so it rose!
A submarine has tanks or compartments
that can be flooded with sea water so it loses buoyancy
and sinks. Compressed air stored in tanks elsewhere
on the sub can be used to push the water back out
again, so the submarine can rise to the surface
once more.
The Lava Lamp picture above uses a
different principle - that of density. The
lamp has a heater at the base which heats up blobs
of oil. The oil blobs expand slightly when hot,
becoming less dense than the surrounding liquid,
so they float toward the top of the lamp. After
a while they cool, contract and become more dense
than the surrounding liquid, so sink.
Some people think this is a good model
to show how Magma (melted rock deep in the Earth,
beneath the hard crust we live on) reaches the surface
of the world. When the Magma reaches gaps in the
Earths crust, it pours out as Lava and we have a
volcano.