Teacher had some fruit for lunch.
We looked at whether this fruit would float or sink.
Have a guess….. Does an orange float or sink? How about a banana?
Next we had to come up with a suggestion as to why certain fruit float or sink.
Is it because of weight? shape? ability to hold air? size?
We noticed that an orange with skin on always floats. We tried to think of ways to have this orange sink. Some of our suggestions were:
empty out some of the water, cover the bumps of the orange (because these bumps might hold air which helps the orange float) , push the orange to the bottom of the water container.
We tried covering the orange in cling film to cover the bumpy skin. The orange still sank!
In fact, the best way to get the orange to sink is to peel it!
Funnily enough though, our banana floated whether it was peeled or not! Strange!
We discovered that a while an orange floats, a peeled orange sinks, orange peel floats, a segment of orange sinks, unless it is put floating on peel.
We were able to make play dough float by changing its shape from a sphere to a boat shape (but not a banana shape). We could even add passengers.
We’d like to try this at home with other kinds of fruit, or even with frozen fruit.
Lots for us to think about today!
