Question

A student places a small amount of water in a glass dish and then carefully places a small paperclip on the surface of the water. The paperclip floats. What happens if the student adds a drop or two of dish soap to the water?

Answer 1

Answer:

Adding soap would cause the paper clip to fall through the water and onto the base of the dish because soap is a surfactant.

Explanation:

Answer 2

You can write anything, but you should include at least one of these things:

• Adding soap makes the paperclip fall through the water to the bottom of the dish.
• Soap is a surfactant.
• Surfactants reduce the surface tension of a liquid.
• The surface tension of water is what supported the paper clip.