Upside-down water cup Follow FizzicsEd 150 Science Experiments: Comments 4 You will need: One cup of water full to the brim with water. One piece of card, larger than the cup rim. You can also use paper. An area that you can get wet. Copyright Instruction Video Instruction 1 Fill your cup with water (try different levels each time!). Gently place a dry card on top of the cup, making sure there is good contact over the cup rim. If doing this inside have a tray, bowl or plate to catch the water spilling 2 Carefully turn the cup upside down, keeping upward pressure on the card with your hand. When the cup is upside down, let go of the card. Can you explain why the water doesn’t come out? 3 School science visits since 2004! – Curriculum-linked & award-winning incursions. – Over 40 primary & high school programs to choose from. – Designed by experienced educators. – Over 2 million students reached. – Face to face incursions & online programs available. – Early learning centre visits too! 4 Online courses for teachers & parents – Help students learn how science really works 5 Get the Unit of Work on Pressure here! Want to dive into air pressure? Get the 60-minute video + PDFs + curriculum links for your class here! How to turn a cup of water upside down with no spills from Fizzics Education on Vimeo. Why Does This Happen? Air molecules are constantly pushing into things, in every direction imaginable. In other words, air has pressure. If you look at your thumbnail, you have the equivalent of around 1 kg of weight pushing down on that body part alone! Inside the cup there was no air, so the weight inside the cup was coming only from the water. Depending on the size of your cup, the weight of the water may have been around 250g. The air below the card was pushing up into the card. The upwards air pressure was much greater than that of the pressure of the water pushing towards the ground – keeping the water in the cup. Variables to test More on variables here Try progressively larger cups. How big can you get? Try a bucket! Does it matter which type of liquid is used? Try a variety of liquids of different densities. Applications Knowledge of how pressure works allow engineers to design structures. Airlocks, for example, are used by deep-sea divers leave and enter their submersible vehicles whilst completely underwater. The air inside the airlock is compressed at the same pressure as that of the water outside the airlock. The equal pressure stops the water from entering the airlock. NASA even uses airlocks during their underwater training! Learn more! Teaching about air pressure? Check out the Flight or Weather show! Teaching about Newton’s laws? Check out the Forces, Friction & Movement workshop! Get in touch with FizzicsEd to find out how we can work with your class. Forces, Friction & Movement Years K to 6 Maximum 30 students School workshop 60 or 90 minutes Online Class Available Read More Enquire Now STEM Full Day Accelerator - Primary Designed from real classroom experiences, this modular day helps you create consistently effective science learning that directly address the new curriculum with easily accessible and cost-effective materials. Read More Enquire Now Be Amazing! How to teach science, the way primary kids love. $29.95 inc. GST View Details Add to Cart Trustpilot
Fill your cup with water (try different levels each time!). Gently place a dry card on top of the cup, making sure there is good contact over the cup rim. If doing this inside have a tray, bowl or plate to catch the water spilling
Carefully turn the cup upside down, keeping upward pressure on the card with your hand. When the cup is upside down, let go of the card. Can you explain why the water doesn’t come out?
School science visits since 2004! – Curriculum-linked & award-winning incursions. – Over 40 primary & high school programs to choose from. – Designed by experienced educators. – Over 2 million students reached. – Face to face incursions & online programs available. – Early learning centre visits too!
Get the Unit of Work on Pressure here! Want to dive into air pressure? Get the 60-minute video + PDFs + curriculum links for your class here!
Teaching about air pressure? Check out the Flight or Weather show! Teaching about Newton’s laws? Check out the Forces, Friction & Movement workshop! Get in touch with FizzicsEd to find out how we can work with your class.
Forces, Friction & Movement Years K to 6 Maximum 30 students School workshop 60 or 90 minutes Online Class Available Read More Enquire Now
STEM Full Day Accelerator - Primary Designed from real classroom experiences, this modular day helps you create consistently effective science learning that directly address the new curriculum with easily accessible and cost-effective materials. Read More Enquire Now
Designed from real classroom experiences, this modular day helps you create consistently effective science learning that directly address the new curriculum with easily accessible and cost-effective materials.
Be Amazing! How to teach science, the way primary kids love. $29.95 inc. GST View Details Add to Cart Trustpilot
This website uses cookies to improve user experience. By using our website you consent to all cookies in accordance with our Cookie Policy.
Thank you for looking to subscribing to our newsletter 🙂 Through this service you’ll be first to know about the newest free experiments, science news and special offers. PLUS: Get a free Kitchen Chemistry Booklet with >20 experiments, how to use variables plus a handy template!
Please fill out the details below and an email will be sent to you. Once you get that just click on the link to confirm your subscription and you're all done!