Water Cohesion Lab

The sparking, luminescent and clear thing we call water is essential to almost every organism on planet Earth. Water so much more complicated and interesting than most people think. Water is made out of two hydrogen atom and one oxygen atom. Two major characteristics of water is cohesion and adhesion. Cohesion is the attraction of the water molecules to itself. Adhesion on the other hand is the attraction of water molecules to the substance that also have dipolar characteristics. The cohesion of the water also is important because it creates the surface tension of the water. The addition of foreign liquids and objects like alcohol or table salt has an affect on the adhesion, cohesion, viscosity, density and surface tension of the water. Called a colligative interaction this weakens the surface tension and reduces the adhesion with the other substances.

The materials used in this experiment was pencil, clipboard, cup, pipet, alcohol, paperclip, water, and graduated cylinder. A pencil was used to document and illustrate the experiment. Then the cup was to measure the water and to do an experiment with the paperclip. We also used the pipet to measure the amount of alcohol to use. The class also used the 100 ml cylinder to measure the meniscus. …show more content…
We then furthered our investigation by examining the size, shape and color of the droplets. We made our conclusions then documented the results and answered question relating to the subject. Then we moved to our next experiment, which was to put water in a graduated cylinder and examine the meniscus. We then documented it the results then answered questions. The third and last project was to document the cohesion and the surface tension. We first tried to make a paper clip float on water then we took the pipet full of alcohol. Then measured the effects of dropping the alcohol near the