No Gravity Water Experiment

This experiment is fun, easy and inexpensive.  You’ll have to be very careful though so you don’t accidentally get soaked…..

First you need to gather up the materials you will need.  Below is a list of the following items needed to conduct this experiment:

• A tall glass filled to the top with water
• A piece of cardboard

Are you ready?  Let’s get started.  Put the cardboard over the top of the glass (the mouth of the glass).  You need to be very careful to make sure that there are no air bubbles getting into the glass as you’re holding the cardboard in place.  Turn the glass upside down preferably over a sink or outside in the grass just to make sure you did it right.  Then remove your hand holding the cardboard.

What happened?  If you did everything correctly, the water should move and the cardboard shouldn’t.  The cardboard will stay at the bottom of the glass and the water should stay suspended in the bottom of the upside down glass.  Cool, huh?  Can you figure out how this is all happening?  The air pressure from outside the glass is greater than the water pressure inside the glass (since there is no air inside the glass).   That air pressure manages to hold the cardboard in place and keep the water suspended in the glass defying gravity (while keeping you and your friends dry!).