Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Paperclips floating?

How is this Paperclip floating in water? Isn't it more dense?  Yes, a Paperclip is more dense than water, but the Paperclip isn't really floating, it's more like resting on the water.  It is very tricky to get a Paperclip to "float". You have to put it on the water flat and gently. The reason it can work is because of  the hydrogen bonds between molecules, but what are those? The reason that hydrogen atoms and oxygen atoms bond is because they fill each other's electron circle so that there are no valence electrons left.  When this happens, hydrogen loses an electron so it becomes partially negative, but oxygen gains 2 electrons so it becomes partially positive.  Since opposites attract, hydrogen bonds from between molecules of H2O.  This makes the water wanna stay together so it doesn't let the Paperclip fall.

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