To Absorb or Not to Absorb? That is the Question

To Absorb or Not to Absorb? That is the Question Ms. Vanwey’s 4th Period Class George Komure Elementary April 29, 2006

Our Research Project • Introduction • Purpose • Problem • Hypothesis • Materials • Methods • Data/Graph • Results/Discussion • Acknowledgements

Introduction What is the History of Paper? • Clay tablets are not a very practical way to write down information • The person who is credited with the invention of paper was a Chinese man named Ts’ai Lun • He used the inner bark of mulberry trees, bamboo fibers, and water • He then pounded the materials together and let them dry • This form of paper making spread throughout the world • By the 10th Century, Arabians were substituting linen fibers for wood and bamboo. This allowed the paper to be made thinner. • Now days there are many different types of paper used for many different reasons

Introduction Continued… Why did we choose our project? • We were studying force and tension and we thought about testing the strength of paper towels • When we had trouble making a reliable experiment, we had to re-think our project idea • That is when we decided to test the absorbency of paper towels • We chose to compare six different brands of paper towel and find out which one was the most absorbent

Problem and Hypothesis • Problem • Which brand of paper towel can absorb the most water? • Hypothesis • If we place each brand of paper towel in a beaker containing 40mL of water, then Bounty paper towels will absorb the most water. • We made this hypothesis because when we observed the paper towels, we saw that Bounty was the thickest

Materials and Methods • Materials • Paper Towels: Bounty, Mardigras, Optium, Scott, Sparkle, and Viva • Beaker • Scissors • Ruler • Marker • Water • Graduated Cylinder • Methods • Use the ruler, marker, and scissors to cut three 20cm x 20cm squares of each paper towel brand • Fill the beaker with 40mL of water • Soak one paper towel sample in the water • Pour the excess water into the graduated cylinder and determine how much water was absorbed • Record your results and repeat steps 1-4 two more times for each brand of paper towel (total of 3 trials each)

Data Table Water Absorbed by Paper Towels (mL)

Graph

Results/Discussion • Our hypothesis was correct • Bounty paper towels were the most absorbent • From most absorbent to least the order was as follows: Bounty, Viva, Scott, Mardigras, Sparkle, and Optium • We think these results happened because Bounty paper towels were the thickest • We learned that paper is made up of fibers • Therefore, paper towel that have more fibers or thicker fibers may be more absorbent • We could test this by looking at the different paper towels under a strong microscope and observing their fibers • Why do we care? • Because as consumers, we need to know about the products that we buy so that we do not waste our money on things that do not work.

Acknowledgements • Thank you to: • Ms. Vanwey’s 4th Period class for working so hard on this project • Ms. Vanwey for helping us do the project • Ms. Basi for coming to our class and doing labs with us and for helping us on our experiment • UOP and TEAM Science for giving us the opportunity to do this

To Absorb or Not to Absorb? That is the Question