Does An Orange 🍊 Sink Or Float? A Fun and Easy Density Experiment For Kids! Does an orange float or sink when placed in water? Seems like a fairly straight forward question! ...But, is it? 🤔 We decided to give this fun density science experiment a try and answer the question of whether or not an Orange does, in fact, float or sink, whilst learning a unique characteristic of oranges. What you'll need: • An orange 🍊 • A deep bowl or container 🍲 • Water 💦 Instructions: Before you start, ask the children to give their hypothesis. What do they think is going to happen and why? 1. Fill the bowl with water. 2. Put the orange in the water and watch what happens. 3. Peel the rind from the orange and try the experiment again, what happens this time? What's The Science? The first time you put the orange in the bowl of water it probably floated on the surface, after you removed the rind however, it probably sank to the bottom. An orange with a peel is heavier than an orange without a peel. So why does the orange with the peel (the heavier one) float and the orange without the peel (the lighter one) sink? The secret to this experiment is DENSITY! The orange with the peel floats because the peel is porous - has lots of tiny empty spaces in it. These ‘empty spaces’ within the peel are filled with air, making tiny little air pockets within the orange’s skin. These pockets of air help increase the buoyancy of the orange (it’s ability to float). On the other hand, when you remove the peel from the orange, you are in fact making it lighter, but you are also removing those tiny air pockets. Therefore, the orange without the peel is denser than the water and so it sinks to the bottom. #threebeansplaytime #3beansplaytime #homescience #funscienceforkids #stem #stemeducation #stemforkids #stemeducationforkids #homelearning #homelearningfun #eyfsideas #density #floatorsink #sinkorfloat https://www.instagram.com/p/CB1amw5nJzH/?igshid=v6cyvjwdsxyr