Group Number: __________________ Score: _____________

Activity 3.5
Are the particles of matter moving? What is between them?
Materials:
⮚ 2 cups tap water
⮚ 1 piece, 30 mL plastic syringe (without the needle)
⮚ 1 piece, wide-mouthed transparent bottle (200- or 250-mL capacity)
⮚ 1 piece, narrow-mouthed transparent bottle (100 mL capacity)
⮚ 1 plastic or glass dinner plate
⮚ ½ cup rock salt (not iodized salt) or ½ cup sand
⮚ food coloring (blue, green, or red)

Procedures:
1. Pull the plunger of the syringe until it reaches the 30 mL mark of the syringe.
2. Press your thumb on the tip of the plunger and use your other thumb to push the plunger once.

Q1. Can you push the plunger all the way through the syringe while your thumb presses on the tip of the
plunger? Why or why not?
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________

Q2. What do you feel as you push the plunger?

_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________

3. This time, push the plunger of the syringe all the way to the end of the syringe. Suck water from the cup or
container up to the 30-mL level of the syringe. Cover tightly the tip of the syringe with your thumb.

Q3. What do you feel as you push the plunger?

_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________

Q4. Compare what you felt when you pushed the plunger with air and with water?
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________

Q5. Explain what you observe. You may represent your comparison by drawing an illustration of the syringe
and the particles of air and another illustration of the syringe and the particles of water.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________

4. Pour ½ cup of tap water into one transparent glass bottle.

5. Pour the ½ cup of tap water in step #4 into another bottle or beaker. Observe carefully the flow of water.

Q6. Did water take the shape of the container?

_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________

6. This time, pour the water just on the flat surface of a dinner plate.

Q7. What do you observe? Write all your observations.

_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________

7. Put or place ½ cup of rock salt or sand into the narrow-mouthed bottle. Observe carefully what happens to rock salt
as you pour it into the bottle and when all of it has been transferred.

Q8. Did rock salt or sand take the shape of the bottle? Did the particles of rock salt change in shape?
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________