POE One-Pager

This demo involves placing a Tylenol bottle that is weighted down with water and 2 quarters into
freshwater and saltwater. If done correctly the bottle will sink in the freshwater and float in the
saltwater due to the saltwater being more dense. This demo deals how density affects buoyancy.

When sodium chloride(salt) is dissolved in water it increases the density of the solution by adding more
molecules to the water. By increasing the density of the solution, we increase the buoyant force of the
saltwater. This makes the saltwater have a greater buoyant force than the freshwater. When the
buoyant force pushing up on an object is greater than the gravitational force pushing down on the
object, the object will float. In this experiment the Tylenol bottle was filled with 2 quarters and then
water to ensure that it would sink in the freshwater. It was also important to make sure that the Tylenol
bottle was not too heavy to float in the saltwater. By having the Tylenol bottle sink in freshwater and
float in saltwater we are able to show how a change in density affects the buoyant force of a solution.

I got this idea by looking up POE’s on the internet. I ended up changing what they were using(I cant
remember what it was) to a Tylenol bottle in order to have a little more fun with it and incorporate the
message in a bottle component.

A few extension questions I thought of were

1) How do ships account for this change in buoyant force as they travel from saltwater to
freshwater and what the plimsoll lines on ships mean.
2) I thought that the answer to 1) ballast tanks could then be expanded on with an invasive
species topic about how ballast tanks bring invasive species to the great lakes.

Ballast tanks bring in the invasive species called zebra mussels into the great lakes