walking water experiment observation

Walking Water Experiment – Teach Capillary Action to Kids

September 24, 2020
5-6 Year Olds , 7-9 Year Olds , Physics , Rainy Day Science

Hi all, in this DIY I am going to show you how water walks. Did you hear me right? Yes, water can walk and here it happens. Let us quickly see the instructions to make water walk and a bit of science behind it as well. Spend your holidays at home with kids using these simple experiments and feel glad that you teach them science.

How to make water walk

Things required.

Glasses – Minimum two – preferably transparent cups
Food color – colors of your choice
Paper towel – 1 to 2 inch wide

Steps to follow

Take the glass tumbler and place them on the table. At least two tumblers are required to see water walk. You must place tumblers close to each other with minimum distance apart.

Fill one glass with water. In case you are taking more glasses, then fill every alternate glass with water.

Fold the paper towel and fold it horizontally twice to make it look like a strip. Then fold in half vertically and adjust the height by cutting at the ends based on the height of your glass.

Add a few drops of colors in the tumblers with water. You can add different colors and observe the color absorption as well.

Place the paper towel in such a way that one half is in the tumbler with water and food color and the other end into the glass which is empty and adjacent to the tumbler with water.
Leave this undisturbed for minimum one hour.

Observation

You can witness the paper towel becoming wet first and slowly it will become excess and the water will get transferred to the empty tumbler. Water will continue to walk until both the tumblers have an equal level of water. With the help of the paper towel, water from one glass walks to another glass. Adding food color will allow you to see the movement easily.

Science behind

Water moves due to capillary action. Paper towels and water contain adhesive force. Water has cohesive force within. The adhesive force remains stronger than the cohesive force. This will make the water travel through the paper from one glass to another.

Paper towel is made up of small fibers and they have a gap between them. Water will get pulled into the gap by capillary action. This is the same that happens by which tree suck water from the ground. Surface tension fuels this action, the water molecules are attracted due to cohesion. Thus absorption happens which is also fueled by the adhesive force between water and paper towels.

A paper towel is made of cellulose and has some positive charge and negative charge on either end. Water molecules are also having charge and this will lead to opposite charge attraction concept making water and paper towel come closer. We can also relate this to siphoning action.

Some More Science Facts

It takes a minimum of 30 minutes for the water to walk from one glass to another. Within 2 hours you can see both the glasses with equal amount of water. Water has walked from one glass to another.

Capillary action makes water to be absorbed from the glass to the paper towel and that is explained in this experiment. You need water, glass, paper towel and food color to see the water walk.

Paper towels are made up of plant fibers. The mixing of the resin will increase their absorbing power. This prevents paper towels from tearing, unlike a normal paper does. Stronger the resin more does the paper towel absorb. The air-pockets in the paper towel will attract water.

Fill water in one cup and keep an empty cup adjacent to it. Fold a paper towel and place it’s one half in one cup and the other into the other cup. The paper towel will absorb water from the glass and fill t

Rainbow Walking Water Science Experiment for Kids

This walking water science experiment is so much fun and super easy to do! My kids absolutely loved it! It even comes with free printable recording sheets for kids as young as preschool! Check out the video to see how easy this walking water experiment really is. This rainbow activity is perfect for spring science!

Walking Water Science Experiment

Ok, this might just be our favorite science experiment! The whole family (adults included) were completely mesmerized with process. We all couldn’t believe how quickly the water traveled up the paper towel and neat it was to watch the colors mix together.

We have wanted to try it out for a long time now and I am kicking myself for waiting so long. I don’t know why, but I thought it might be difficult to do or take a long time. I was way wrong. It was very easy and we started seeing results right away!

This rainbow science experiment is a so cool!

Related: Simple Spring Science and STEAM Activities

The walking water science experiment is great at any time of the year, but it is especially perfect for spring. I love doing rainbow activities in the spring, so this was a great addition to our rainbow theme activities.

If you are looking for simple science to do with the kids and something that will really WOW them, this is definitely one to try.

You only need a few simple supplies that you probably already have around the house.

A super cool science experiment for preschool and elementary.

Setting Up the Rainbow Science Experiment

Supplies Needed:

Printable walking water recording sheets (button to download at the bottom of the post)
Small plastic cups or glasses
Paper towels (*read my tips below for picking the right ones)
Food coloring in primary colors

* The pick-a-size paper towels are best because then you just use half sheets for each cup. If you only have full sheets, then cut them in half. I’ve also heard that more absorbent paper towels work better too. I buy the cheap store brand ones, and our water moved pretty quickly from cup to cup, so I am not sure how important that is. It may have went quicker with something more absorbent though.

1. Print out the recording sheets and make copies, if needed.

2. Place 7 cups in a row and pour water in the 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 7th cup. My cups were about 3/4 full. I have since heard that fuller is better.

3. Add 5 drops of red food coloring to the 1st cup and the 7th cup.

4. Add 5 drops of yellow food coloring to the 3rd cup.

5. Add 5 drops of blue food coloring to the 5th cup.

This walking water experiment teaches kids about color mixing and capillary action.

Doing the Walking Water Experiment

You want to try to use the same amount of food coloring in each cup. When I did this with my kids they did drop an extra one or two in since they can’t control it well, but I just added a drop or two more to the others to even it out.

6. Take a half sheet of paper towel and fold it in half lengthwise and in half again lengthwise.

7. Trim off some of the length so that there isn’t too much excess paper towel that will stick up in the air between each cup. This will make the water walk more quickly.

8. Place one half of a rolled paper towel in the 1st cup and place the other half in the cup next to it. Then another paper towel from 2nd cup and into the 3rd cup. This continues until you have placed the last paper towel that drapes over from the 6th cup to the 7th cup.

9. Stare at the cups and watch what starts happening. You should quickly be able to see the colored water begin to crawl up the paper towel.

10. Don’t forget to do the first part of the recording sheet. Students will predict what they think will happen.

This walking water experiment is AWESOME!

Keep checking back every couple of minutes. Soon you will be able to see that the water has crawled all the way up the paper towel and is beginning to walk back down into the empty cup next to it.

Since the cup on either side of an empty cup has colored water in it, the two colors begin to mix in the empty cup. So cool!

Keep coming back throughout the two hours or soon and observe what is happening.

Question to Ask

What do you think will happen to the water?

What is happening now?

Why do you think the colors are changing?

Why might the water be able to move up against gravity like that?

How this Science Experiment Works

The water moves up the paper towels through a process called capillary action. The paper towel is made from fibers and the water is able to travel through the gaps in the fibers. The gaps in the paper towel act like capillary tubes and pull the water upward. This is what helps water climb from a plant’s roots to the leaves at the top of the plant or tree.

The water is able to move upward against gravity because of the attractive forces between the water and the fibers in the paper towel.

I even removed one of the red cups and made a color wheel so I could introduce the kids to that as well.

I hope your kids have a great time with this super cool walking water science experiment!

Other Cool Science Experiments for Kids

This rainbow Walking Water Science Experiment is one of our most popular science activities!

Try this super simple Oobleck recipe that only requires two household ingredients!

This rainbow skittles experiment is sure to WOW the kids!

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Explore Newton’s color wheel while making colors disappear with this totally awesome science activity!

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This rain cloud jar science experiment give children a chance to explore clouds and rain in a hands-on and engaging way

The kids will get a kick out of this super cool dancing raisins science experiment !