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Materials:
Piece of tinfoil
Container of water
Hammer
Experiment:
Take the piece of tinfoil and crumple it up in a loose ball. Grab all 4 corners when you do this to keep the cracks at the top of the ball, if possible.
Make a prediction: What do you think will happen when you drop it in the water?
Drop it in the water. Does it float or sink?
Now take it back out and crumple it up even more. Squish it as tightly as you can.
Make another prediction. Will it float or sink this time?
Drop it back in the water to test it out. Does it sink or float now?
Now take a hammer and use that to squish the tinfoil into as tight a ball as you possibly can.
Make another prediction. Will it float or sink?
Drop it in the water. Did your results change? If not, hammer it some more and try again.
Results:
Why do you think that it floated when it was a bigger ball, but sank when it got really squished?
When you squished it, what were you squishing out of it? What was inside the big ball but was all squished out of the small one? (Air: air is lighter than water, so when the tinfoil has enough air inside, it makes the tinfoil float)
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