Did you know you can control the speed of a splash?
Did you know you can control the speed of a splash? Time to make some speedy waves, before using a neat trick to slow them down.
Water splashes around quickly in a half full bottle. But top it up with oil and the waves chill to a much more sedate pace. So what’s going on?
In this activity, the waves are made of water, but water isn’t the only thing moving in your bottle. As water flows into a space, the stuff that was there must get out of the way. Air is light and easy to move, but oil is almost as dense as water – so it takes a lot more effort to push the oil out of the way!
Slowness isn’t the only cool thing about the waves in the full bottle. Things can look very weird in there! When light travels through different materials, it gets bent at an angle. When the material is curved, like the sides of a bottle or the surface of a wave, it can act as a magnifying lens. Sometimes light gets bent so far it reflects instead, making the surface look shiny!
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