Soap Solution

Non Soap Solution

Conclusion –

This experiment investigated how many water drops fit on one side of a penny. In order to study the problem, two tests were conducted, testing the number of water droplets that could maintain surface tension with one side of a penny, and as well as testing how many water droplets could maintain surface tension on a penny covered in soap solution. Four trials were conducted with each test. Results showed that a larger average of water droplets maintain surface tension on one side could be found with the non-soap solution test (27 droplets), whilst the average of the soap solution test was far less great (6 droplets). This proved the hypothesis that if the penny is covered in soap then it will hold a smaller amount of water compared to when it does not have any soap on it because the soap will counter the surface tension. With test #1(simply with water) the class’s groups’ individual averages ranged from 22 to 34. The reason why there may be such a difference could be due to many different reasons, such as the way the students individually dropped the water droplets (height, pressure). With test 2 there is a far smaller difference between each groups’ averages (ranged from 5 to 8) and that is probably due to the soap-solution countering the water no matter the distance or the height that the water droplets were dropped from. In an effort to determine how many water drops can fit on one side of a penny using one with water and the other soap solution, it was found that 27 drops may be the average of just water, and with soap, 6. Finally, if the experiment was to be repeated, some changes to improve the experimental design could be; testing with different brands of soap, making sure the pennies were absolutely clean, seeing how the number (result) may differ from person to person to the way they drop the water, etc.