PHYSICS INVESTIGATORY

PROJECT

RAFT POWERED BY SURFACE

TENSION

Submitted by: Akshata Pudage

Class: XII C

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 JAIPURIAR SCHOOL (CBSE)

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that Akshata Pudage of class XII having CBSE roll
no.01 has satisfactorily completed the physics investigatory project
for all India Senior School Certificate Examination for year 2019-20.

Internal Examiner External Examiner

Principal

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 INDEX
Serial Topic Page No.
No.

1. Acknowledgement 3

2. Objective 4

3. Introduction 4

4. Material and Equipment 7

5. Experimental procedure 8

6. Observation table 10

7. Results 10

8. Bibliography 11

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to express my sincere gratitude towards my
Physics teacher, Mrs. Geeta for her consistent advice
and support throughout the project. I would also like to
thank my parents for providing me with the necessary
material required for the accomplishment of the project.

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 OBJECTIVE
To investigate how a small raft made from a clear plastic
sheet can be propelled by water surface tension.

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 INTRODUCTION
Surface tension is broadly defined as the energy required to increase the
surface area by a unit amount.

SURFACE TENSION IN LIQUIDS:

Liquids also experience surface tension. So, here, surface tension is
also defined as a contractive tendency of the surface of a liquid that
allows it to resist an external force. It may also be defined as a property
of liquid by virtue of which the surface of a liquid at rest tends to have
minimum area and behaves like it is covered by a stretched
membrane.

The molecules of the liquid experience intermolecular attractions,

or cohesive forces, which means the molecules are pulling and pushing
away from each other, just like magnets both attract and repel each
other. In the case of a water molecule surrounded on all sides by other
water molecules, every pulling force is balanced by a pushing force. The
net force is zero. Though at the surface, where air and water meet, that
is not true. The water molecules at the surface experience a net
downward pull. This is the surface tension of the water.

Water molecules like to interact with each other because they

are polar molecules, meaning they have positively and negatively
charged sides. Similar to a group of magnets, the water molecules

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arrange themselves so that the positive sides are away from each other,
but can interact with the negative sides. Other polar molecules also
interact with water molecules. Molecules that interact with, and are
dissolved by water are called hydrophilic molecules. There are also
molecules that do not like to interact with water. They are hydrophobic.
If a molecule that has both hydrophilic and hydrophobic parts is added to
water, the hydrophilic end will try to get close to the water molecules
while the hydrophilic end will push away from the water. This pulling and
pushing separates the water molecules from each other and decreases
the surface tension because of this. Compounds that lower the surface
tension of water are known as surfactants.

Common effects of surface tension

Surface tension has many effects observed in daily life. These may
include –

 Water beading on a leaf.

 Water striders stay atop the liquid because of surface tension.

 Water dripping from a tap.

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  Flotation of objects denser than water occurs when the object is
non-wettable and its weight is small enough to be borne by the
forces arising from surface tension.
 Tears of wine formed on a wine glass.

Marangoni Effect

The Marangoni effect is the mass transfer along an interface between

two fluids due to surface tension gradient.

Since a liquid with a high surface tension pulls more strongly on the
surrounding liquid than one with a low surface tension, the presence of a
gradient in surface tension will naturally cause the liquid to flow away
from regions of low surface tension. The surface tension gradient can be
caused by concentration gradient or by a temperature gradient (surface
tension is a function of temperature).
A region with a lower concentration of a liquid ‘A’ with greater surface
tension will pull on the surrounding fluid ‘B’ more strongly than a region

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with a higher liquid concentration which has lower surface tension. The
result is that the liquid ‘A’ tends to flow away from regions with higher
concentration of ‘B’—along the tension gradient. This can also be easily
demonstrated by spreading a thin film of water on a smooth surface and
then allowing a drop of alcohol to fall on the center of the film. The liquid
will rush out of the region where the drop of alcohol fell.

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 Materials and Equipment
 Kitchen sponges (2)
 Scissors
 Ruler, metric
 Transparencies (clear plastic sheet of thick quality)
 Marker
 Toothpicks
 Tape
 Large basin or sink
o It should be large enough that the raft can travel a short
distance within it.
o Make sure it can be easily emptied, as you will be filling and
re-filling it with fresh water often.
 Water
 Eye dropper
 Liquid laundry detergent
 Other substances to test their affect on water surface tension
o Liquid hand soap
o Toothpaste (made slightly porous by mixing in water)
o Vegetable oil
o Table salt
 Lab notebook

Experimental Procedure
1. Cut the sponge into at least 10 small, identically sized pieces
(cubes of side 1.5cm). The sponge will fit into a space cut in the
back of the raft.
2. Make a rough shape of the raft on the transparencies.
a. The raft should be symmetric.

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 b. The raft should be small enough that it can travel a short
distance in the basin or sink, but still be large enough to hold
the sponge piece.
1. An initial size of 7-13 cm long, and a width that is
approximately half of the length was taken.
2. The size of the raft was noted in a notebook.
c. A space in the back of the raft was cut. The sponge will fit
here. It should be slightly larger than one of the sponge
pieces.

3. The raft was cut out.

4. Run a toothpick horizontally through one of the small sponge
pieces so enough of the two ends of the toothpick can rest on the
transparency, then attach the toothpick ends with tape so that the
sponge is attached to the small space at the back of the raft.
5. Fill a large basin or sink with tap water.
6. Put the raft onto the water surface and let it float.
7. Using an eye dropper, put a drop of liquid laundry detergent onto
the sponge at the end of the raft. If one drop is not enough, put
one or two more. The raft does not require much detergent to start
moving.
8. Observe the motion. Record all observations in the notebook.
9. Empty the basin or sink. Also rinse the raft, especially the sponge
piece, to get all of the detergent off of it. Repeat steps 5-9 with the
same raft and sponge at least two more times.
10. Replace the sponge on the raft with a fresh sponge.
11. Fill up the basin or sink with fresh water.
12. Put the raft onto the water surface and let it float.

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 13. Put a drop of liquid hand soap onto the sponge at the end of
the raft.
14. Observe the motion and compare it to the first raft, which
used detergent.
15. Repeat the above steps with rest of the materials to be
tested.

OBSERVATION TABLE

Fastest
Did the Raft Good or Bad
Substance Used Speed?
Move? Yes/No Motor?
Yes/No

Liquid laundry
Yes Yes Good motor
detergent

Liquid hand
Yes No Good motor
soap

Alcohol Yes No Good motor

Average
Vegetable oil Yes No
motor

Table salt No - Bad motor

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 RESULT
Surface tensions of the liquids are in the order-

Table salt > Vegetable oil > Alcohol > Liquid hand soap > Liquid
laundry detergent

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY
i) www.sciencebuddies.org
ii) www.wikipedia.org
iii) www.scribd.com
iv) NCERT Physics textbook (Class XI)

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