Uploaded April 2013 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Capillary action in plants experiment with paper towel - Science experiments for kids
You'll need:
• Two glasses
• Color water
• A paper towel or a tissue paper
Capillary effect: The movement of a liquid along the surface of a solid caused by the attraction of molecules of the liquid to the molecules of the solid.
• Take two glasses
• Put them side by side
• Fill one of the glass with color water
• Now take a paper towel
• Pin fold it or fold it into middle
• Dip one of the ends of the paper into the color water and put the other end into the glass one beside it
• Leave it for few hours
• You can observe that the color water gets transferred into the empty glass through paper towel
• Its keeps flowing into the glass till they attain equal amount of water in both of them
A Closer Look
Molecules of water are naturally attracted to each other and form temporary hydrogen bonds with each other; their attraction for each other on the surface of a liquid, gives rise to surface tension. But they are also attracted in a similar way to other molecules, called hydrophilic molecules, such as those in the fibers of a towel; these attractive forces can draw water upward against the force of gravity to a certain degree.
Capillary action in plants experiment with paper towel - Science experiments for kids
You'll need:
• Two glasses
• Color water
• A paper towel or a tissue paper
Capillary effect: The movement of a liquid along the surface of a solid caused by the attraction of molecules of the liquid to the molecules of the solid.
• Take two glasses
• Put them side by side
• Fill one of the glass with color water
• Now take a paper towel
• Pin fold it or fold it into middle
• Dip one of the ends of the paper into the color water and put the other end into the glass one beside it
• Leave it for few hours
• You can observe that the color water gets transferred into the empty glass through paper towel
• Its keeps flowing into the glass till they attain equal amount of water in both of them
A Closer Look
Molecules of water are naturally attracted to each other and form temporary hydrogen bonds with each other; their attraction for each other on the surface of a liquid, gives rise to surface tension. But they are also attracted in a similar way to other molecules, called hydrophilic molecules, such as those in the fibers of a towel; these attractive forces can draw water upward against the force of gravity to a certain degree.
