Wibbly Wobby Science Experiment

The Science Topic this term is friction and we have been carrying out a number of different experiments to understand what friction is. To start with we had to break up some jelly cubes and then using pencils as chopsticks transfer the cubes from one bowl to another bowl 20cm away.

Once we completed this part of the experiment we were given a time and moved round to the next part of the experiment. There were another 10 cubes of jelly but this time they were in a bowl of cooking oil. Again we had to transfer the jelly cubes to another bowl. This time it was a lot harder to move the cubes because of the cooking oil and the lack of friction between the pencils and the jelly cubes.

Here are some of our times for the experiment:

Name                          Bowl 1 (no oil)                             Bowl 2 (oil)

Haydn                         41 seconds                            2 minutes 32 seconds

Isobelle                      28 seconds                            5 minutes 10 seconds

Gabby                        55 seconds                            3 minutes 53 seconds

We learnt that Friction is the force between two surfaces rubbing together and the cooking oil meant there was less friction and therefore harder to move the jelly cubes.