High School
Adhesion, cohesion, surface tension
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Explore cohesion, adhesion, and surface tension of water! Investigate how these properties are different for different substances and infer the intermolecular forces at play!
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Learning Objectives
Students will know
- Adhesion
- Cohesion
- Surface tension
- Intermolecular forces
Students will understand
- Many of the properties of water (adhesion, surface tension, etc.) are due to strong intermolecular forces.
- Not all substances have the same intermolecular forces.
Students will be able to
- Perform a “Walking Water” experiment to see how water molecules have stronger adhesion forces to paper than it’s own cohesive force.
- Investigate intermolecular strength and surface tension by conducting “Drops on a Penny” with water and alcohol.
Standards Alignment + Connections
Next Generation Science Standards Connections
HS-PS1-3: Plan and conduct an investigation to gather evidence to compare the structure of substances at the bulk scale to infer the strength of electrical forces between particles.