Homework Assignment 2 - Liquids and Surfaces

Design and perform an experiment that characterizes the interactions of liquid droplets with different surfaces. Post pictures, data and graphs that document your experiment.

Materials:
I thought that this assignment would be difficult for me because I live in the dorms and do not have a lot to work with. However, with a little improvisation and creativity I was able to create 10 different combinations on 3 different surfaces. The three surfaces that I used were plastic, press and seal sealing wrap, and cardboard. The liquids that I used were water, dish soap, laundry soap, milk, shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and apple juice.

              

      

      

      

The assignment was to have 10 different pictures but I have 14. The reason for this was because I thought it was interesting to see how one liquid would react with a surface. After doing that I added another form of liquid to see what would happen. By taking pictures of both of these it shows the before and after affect of the combination. The first picture is of a mixture of water and body wash on a plastic plate. The water ran but still stayed around the body wash. The second picture is of dish soap on a plastic plate. The picture to the right of it is dish soap mixed with water. I could have predicted what was going to happen because of years of doing dishes I knew that the dish soap would sink to the bottom of the water. The next row of pictures is laundry soap on a plastic plate. The picture to the right has water mixed with the laundry soap. The laundry soap actually mixed well with the water and became very runny. The following line is water on a sheet of press and seal sealing wrap. The water stuck to the press and seal and did not run. When I mixed body wash with the water it became a little runnier. The next line is a picture of milk and water mixed together on a plastic plate. This combination mixed really well and became really runny. The next row is conditioner on a sheet of sealing wrap. The conditioner stuck to the sheet without moving. The picture to the right of it is conditioner mixed with dish soap. This was an interested combination. The dish soap actually caused the conditioner to spread out. The next row has a surface of cardboard. I placed a small amount of conditioner on the cardboard and it did not move. When I added water the water began to run a little but did cause the conditioner to slightly spread also. The last row is a picture of water on cardboard on the left and water with apple juice on cardboard on the right. The water did not run because it was a flat surface but did have a slight bump to it. When I added the apple juice the combination began to run more. This was a very interesting assignment and I would like to try it again sometime when I have better materials than what I could find in my dorm room. However, I was still able to observe 14 different combinations of liquids and surfaces and see how they influence each other.

Hypothesis: The liquids mixed with water on the cardboard will be more likely to soak through. The liquids that were mixed together on the plastic/ceramic plate and sealing wrap were more likely to run. Water on the sealing wrap will be runny. Thicker liquids will not move much and instead will bubble up.

Liquids	Plastic/Ceramic Plate
Body wash	The body wash formed a small bubble on the plate, but did not run.
Body Wash with Water	When I added the water the body wash became a little runnier. The water formed around the wash.
Dish Soap	The dish soap formed a small bubble and did not spread out on the plate.
Dish Soap with Water	When I added the water the dish soap sunk to the bottom on the water causing the water to bubble up.
Laundry Soap	The laundry soap formed a small bubble like bump on the plate.
Laundry Soap with Water	When I added the water to the laundry soap it became much thinner and runnier.
Milk with Water	When I mixed a small amount of milk and water together it ran together and spread around the plastic plate. The two liquids were very similar.

Liquids	Press and Seal Sealant Wrap
Water	The water stuck to the wrap and bubbled up without moving. I think this had to do with the sticky side of the sealant wrap.
Water with Body Wash	When I added the body wash to the water it became a little runnier. This was mostly due to the body wash sinking to the bottom because it was heavier.
Conditioner	The Conditioner sat on the sealant wrap about a half inch off the wrap. It did not spread out or move.
Conditioner with Dish Soap	I decided to add dish soap to the conditioner because I thought it would be an interesting combination. The dish soap made the conditioner spread on the wrap.

Liquids	Cardboard
Conditioner	The conditioner sat on the cardboard about a half inch up. It did not spread on this dry surface.
Conditioner and Water	When I added the water to the conditioner it became a little runny. After a couple minutes the mixture started to leak through the cardboard.
Water	When I put the water on the cardboard at first it did not run and just bubbled up. After a few minutes it started to leak through the cardboard without running out.
Water and Apple Juice	I added the apple juice to the water to see what would happen. The mixture became much runnier and spread out. It only took a minute for it to leak through the cardboard.

Conclusion:
The conclusion that I came to was that when using cardboard the liquids mixed with water would soak through and those without were less likely to. When using the sealing wrap I thought that the water would run. However, it bubbled up and did not move. Mixtures of substances were more likely to run than those without. The thicker the liquid was on the plastic/ceramic plate the less likely it was to spread. The thinner the liquid was the more likely it was to spread. This was all pretty predictable considering I did not have many interesting liquids to work with living in the dorms.