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Time for some magic. Fill a bowl with tap water and drop a paper clip in it. Unsurprisingly, this will sink right to the bottom.

Tear a piece of tissue paper (the size of half a €5 note). Gently place this flat on the surface of the water. Again, gently place the dry paperclip onto the tissue (do not touch the water or the tissue).

Use the end of a spoon to poke the tissue (but not the paperclip) until the tissue sinks. With a little bit of patience, the tissue will sink leaving the paperclip to float.

This works due to surface tension. The water molecules at the surface hold tightly together, holding the paperclip in suspension (the paperclip is not really floating).

The surface layer behaves like an elastic sheet. Many insects use surface tension to ‘walk’ on water.Try to answer the following questions: how many paperclips can surface tension hold? Does the shape of the paperclip affect its ability to stay at the surface and what liquids have the strongest surface tension?

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