Take a watertight container, possibly an aquarium, along with a spring and any small object with a flat bottom (an empty thread spool or a piece of wood will work). Attach the spring to the bottom of your airtight container.

First, try the experiment with only air as your resistor. Load the spring with the object, pressing down to maximum resistance on the object. Caution! Stand back and let it go. Time how long it takes it to pop up into the air and measure how high it goes.

Then, fill your container with water. Load your spring and push down on it. Let go and again measure the timing and height it rises. The differences will help students understand that different media, depending on the density of molecules, will determine how quickly a driller can bore and how he or she can tell into what they are boring.

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Last Updated: 02/16/03
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