About a science experiment for surface tension...?

Question

Please help me with my homework.. We were asked to predict a hypothesis for our experiment. This experiment is regarding the surface tension of number. We're gonna place paper clips in water and predict the number of paper clips that can be placed on water before water spills from the container. I guessed about 10 paper clips. Can someone tell me an estimation and a more detailed explanation of what really happened?

Answer 1

Well, I cannot give you an estimate, I'm sure your teacher is just looking for you to take a guess so you can relate the answer to it. What happens though: When you place a paper clip in the water it takes up space. This space is being taken up by the water, so when it falls into the water, it pushes out its own weight in water. So, if you were to drop a 1 gram paper clip into a cup of water that is filled to the brim, the equivalent of one gram of water will spill from the cup to make up for the paper clip entering the cup!

Answer 2

When the paper clip is floating on the water due to surface tension, it displaces it's own weight in water, and the water in the glass must rise an equivalent amount = to the weight of the paper clip.
If the paper clip sinks below the surface, it will displace a volume of water = to the VOLUME of the paper clip, not to the displaced weight, because the paper clip is now fully submersed in the water.

This is easier to picture if you picture a large rock placed in a canoe, the volume of water displaced will be equivalent in weight to the combined weight of the rock and the canoe, but, if you throw the rock overboard it will then only displace it's own volume of water. The canoe will still displace a volume of water = to its weight.

Answer 3

i would say around 40+, it takes more than 10, unless the container openning is really small