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Floating orange experiment : Fizzics Education

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Floating orange experiment

Floating orange experiment

Follow FizzicsEd 150 Science Experiments:

You will need:

  • 1 Orange or Mandarin
  • 1 bowl of water

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An orange next to a bowl of water on a table
1 A floating orange in a bowl of water

Place your orange in the bowl of water. You should find that the orange floats.

2 An orange with no skin at the bottom of a bowl of water

Now peel the orange and try to float the orange again. It sinks! Why?

3 A man using a pipette to drop blue coloured water onto a taught strong that is suspended over a tray

Get the Unit of Work on Water Science here!

  • Explore the water cycle
  • Learn about cohesion, adhesion & capillary action
  • From water currents to floatation, join us to explore water science!

Includes cross-curricular teaching ideas, student quizzes, a sample marking rubric, scope & sequences & more

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5 Teacher showing how to do an experiment outside to a group of kids.

Online courses for teachers & parents

– Help students learn how science really works

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What is going on?

This is all about density!

You would expect that the orange with the skin would sink in water as the rind make it heavier. However, the orange rind is filled with tiny pockets of air which reduces the density of the orange and allows it to float. By removing the orange rind, you were left with a much denser object which then sank in the water.

Variable testing

More about variable testing here

  • Try different fruits, does this work with all fruits?
  • How can you change the water so that it can float a peeled orange?

A man with a glove above a liquid nitrogen vapour cloud

Learn more!

Comments

4 thoughts on “Floating orange experiment

  1. In the ‘Floating Orange Experiment’ under the heading Variable Testing, the question is posed: can you change the water in order for the peeled orange to float? Just wondering how if this is possible… and how? Thanks

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