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Paper Towel Experiment

Which is the most absorbent.

The Paper Towel Experiment is a project about which type of paper can absorb more water.

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In every store, big or small, there are numerous brands of paper towels available, each claiming to be the best, the most absorbent or the cheapest. How do we prove or disprove these claims? How do we work out which paper towels are truly great and which are almost entirely useless?

We have all seen advertisements where two brands of paper towels are compared by observing how quickly or thoroughly they suck up a mysterious blue liquid or by wiping up some muddy footprints from their kitchen floor.

This, as we know, is not very scientific - there are no figures, no proof and little truth.

Here we are going to show you how to conduct an experiment to test one of these claims: the absorbency of paper towels.

Some Facts About Kitchen Towel

• Paper towels were invented by Arthur Scott in Philadelphia, USA, in around 1900. From humble beginnings, paper kitchen towels have become a billion dollar industry.
• Paper towels are often made from post consumer recycled paper fiber, requiring fewer trees being cut down and using up to 50% less energy.

Performing the Paper Towel Experiment

“More expensive brands of paper towel are more absorbent.”

What You Will Need for the Paper Towel Experiment

• At least four brands of absorbent paper towel
• A stopwatch
• A graduated cylinder
• Fill the beaker up with exactly 200 ml of water
• Take a sheet of the first brand of towel.
• Fold and insert into the water. As you dip the towel into the water, start your stopwatch.
• After 20 seconds, remove the towel from the beaker and squeeze as much water as you can out of the towel in to the graduated cylinder using the funnel. Make a note of the volume extracted
• Repeat 5 times for each brand and note the results in your data table. You must make sure that each sheet is folded in exactly the same way for the experiment to be constant and correct.
• Write down the results for each brand in your notebook.

Work out an average for each result and write down in a table.

Plot all of your results onto a simple bar graph like the one below; you can do this on a computer or you can use graph paper and pencils.

This will allow you to show which brand of paper towel is the most absorbent and which is truly awful.

Problems and Further Experimentation

Of course, this is a very simple experiment and it does have some limitations; you are testing only one reason why people choose a certain brand.

Some brands might be excellent at soaking up spills but are very expensive. Maybe some brands are not as good at soaking up water but are better at soaking up other liquids like milk or cooking oil.

When a consumer buys paper towels, they are not just looking for absorbency. Price, softness, availability, number of sheets on a roll, and strength are all important factors when buying a roll of kitchen towel.

Perhaps you could design an experiment to rate the strength and softness, or try and calculate how much each towel costs per sheet.

Paper towel manufacturers spend millions of dollars every year but, with a few simple experiments, you can find out which brands truly are the best.

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Martyn Shuttleworth (Sep 21, 2008). Paper Towel Experiment. Retrieved May 08, 2024 from Explorable.com: https://explorable.com/paper-towel-experiment

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December 10, 2015

Folded or Flat Paper Towel: Which One Absorbs More Water?

A soggy project from Science Buddies

By Science Buddies

A little science can help you save an important resource you probably use every day: paper towels. Try this activity and see what simple trick can help you--and the environment! 

George Retseck

Key concepts Absorption Paper Water Molecules

Introduction We all know that washing hands throughout the day can help keep colds and flu at bay. So several times a day we lather up, scrub, rinse and then use a paper towel—then another one, maybe even three or four to dry them off. Because who wants wet hands?

But could there be a way to conserve some of that paper by getting a paper towel to go the extra mile, allowing you to dry your hands with just one single sheet? This activity just might help you find the answer.

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If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing . By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.

Background To understand how paper towels absorb water, we need to know a little about how they are made.

Paper towels are made of ground-up plant material. If you look through a microscope at a torn-up piece of paper (or look up some images on the Internet), you will see a web of tiny plant fibers. Magnifying your paper further will reveal that the fibers are made of long chains of linked sugar molecules, called cellulose. Water is attracted to cellulose and likes to be soaked up and stick to the cellulose in paper.

When you looked through your microscope, did you also see the spaces between the fibers? These empty spaces affect the absorbency of the paper: Water likes to stick together and fill these spaces as it follows the water attracted to the cellulose. More spaces allow more water to be absorbed. But what would happen if you add a tiny space between sheets of paper towels? Would the empty space between the sheets help to hold more water?

Five or more identical paper towels—preferably the type in public restrooms (In case you would like to test different types of paper towels, choose at least five identical towels of each type. Do not worry about wasting a few towels—this activity might help save paper in the long run!)

Place to hang a paper towel to drip

Kitchen scale, one-gram precision or better

Paper and pen or pencil (for recording weights)

A workspace that can get a little wet

Scissors to make towels smaller for small hands (optional)

Preparation

Assemble all of your materials at your workspace.

Unfold the first paper towel (if you have the prefolded type). Wet it thoroughly and hang it so all of the excess water drips out.

When the towel no longer drips, weigh it on a kitchen scale. You can heap up the towel on the scale rather than neatly folding it. Record the mass on a piece of paper.

Fold an identical paper towel in three (if it was not already prefolded) and fold it one more time so six layers of towel are on top of one another. Wet it thoroughly and hang it—still folded—so all of the excess water drips out. Do you think this folded paper towel holds more, less or just as much water as the unfolded paper towel?

When the folded towel stops dripping, weigh it on a kitchen scale. Do not unfold it; place it on the scale then read and record its mass. Does it weigh more, less or exactly the same as the wet unfolded paper towel? If there is a difference, why do you think the mass is different?

Now that you measured how much water the folded and unfolded paper towels can hold, and maybe found a difference, which do you think would dry your hands better?

Place a fresh, unfolded paper towel and an identical fresh paper towel folded in three in a dry spot on your workspace.

Wet your hands, shake them three times to remove most of the water and then dry them off with the unfolded paper towel. Do your hands feel completely dry, somewhat dry or still quite wet?

Repeat wetting and shaking your hands. Try to shake your hands in the same way you did the first time then dry them with the folded paper towel. How do your hands feel now? Do they feel dryer, wetter or just as dry as when you used the unfolded paper towel?

If your hands feel very dry with both the folded and unfolded paper towels, try again with half a paper towel, as follows: Cut a paper towel in half and dry your hands with an unfolded half-towel and with a folded half-towel. Do you feel a difference now?

How can your findings help you use fewer paper towels for the same job?

Extra: If you have more paper towels of the same type, repeat the tests; perform each step exactly the same way and notice the variations in the outcomes. Does the measured difference in mass vary a lot or just a bit? Is it always the folded or always the unfolded paper towel that weighs more? Do your hands always feel drier when using the folded or the unfolded paper towel ? Scientists repeat tests to verify the outcome. Scientists also like to have their studies repeated by a different researcher utilizing different instrumentation (such as the scale). If the independent tests reveal the same results, the test is called reproducible . Such repeated tests by other experimenters have more scientific value. Can you find a friend to help you make your tests reproducible?

Extra: If you have different types of paper towels available, repeat the tests with them. Do you expect similar results? What did you find after testing them all?

Extra : Test other paper products that are used to absorb liquids, such as kitchen paper towels, toilet paper, paper napkins or tissues. Do these absorb more water when folded than when used single-layered? Which type of paper product gains most by folding? Can you explain why?

Observations and results Did you measure a higher mass for the folded wet paper towel and did your hands feel drier when you used it? This is expected, as the tiny space between paper towel layers helps hold more water.

Paper is made of cellulose, which water molecules like to cling to. As a result, paper readily absorbs water. Paper towels are especially absorbent because their cellulose fibers have empty spaces—tiny air bubbles—between them. Water molecules, which like to stay together, follow the one another as they are absorbed by the cellulose and fill the empty spaces. Layering the paper towel creates more spaces for water to fill, which explains why your layered paper towel could hold more water and was more efficient at drying your hands.

The next time you reach for the paper towels, remember to fold! You might feel good knowing you just saved an extra paper towel from being used.

Cleanup Let your wet paper towels dry, then recycle them if possible.

This activity was inspired by the TEDx talk, " How to Use One Paper Towel ," by Joe Smith.

More to explore How Do Paper Towels Absorb Water? from A Moment of Science, Indiana Public Media How to Use One Paper Towel , from Joe Smith, TEDxConcordiaUPortland Paper Chromatography , from Flashbang Science Chromatography: Be a Color Detective , from Scientific American

This activity brought to you in partnership with Science Buddies

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Paper Towel Absorbency Experiment

This post is part of the DIY Summer Camp Activities series. Find more fun things for kids of all ages there .

I coach a homeschool Science Olympiad team and one of the events is Experimental Design. For the event, students use various provided materials to design and conduct an experiment on a specific topic.

For one of our practice sessions last year, I gave them different brands of paper towel and asked them to conduct an experiment on absorbency.

The result – for me – was that I changed my brand of paper towel!! Yes, the results were that dramatic.

So the DIY summer camp activity will not only be educational and fun for your children but should also be beneficial for you!

Here is a step by step walkthrough of the experiment. You can use more water and more paper towels if you are using a bigger glass. Just adapt to make it work with the equipment you are using.

Get your children to come up with a hypothesis as to what they expect to happen and why eg. We believe brand A will be the most absorbent, brand B then next absorbent and brand C the least absorbent because …..

Materials needed

• 3 (or more) different brands of paper towels (Note how much they cost)
• graduated cylinder (if you don’t have one use a skinny glass and measure the water you pour in and what is left using a measuring jug)
• aluminum pie dish or a tray to prevent a mess 🙂

1. Gather needed materials

2. Lay all paper towels on top of each other and use scissors to trim so they are all the same size (this way you’re testing how the absorbency of the towels differs and size isn’t a variable). You will need 3 pieces of each brand.

3. Take 1 paper towel from brand A and roll lengthwise so its diameter can fit in the graduated cylinder

4. Fill the graduated cylinder with lukewarm tap water to a volume of 30ml. (Note: we use metric measurements as that is standard in the scientific community).

5. Put a rolled paper towel in the cylinder so 3cm of the towel is submerged in the water

6. Hold the towel in water for 10 seconds, then lift it up out of the cylinder and allow to drip into the cylinder for 5 seconds. (The purpose for doing this was to make sure the test showed what the paper towels were absorbing AND keeping in. After all, you don’t want towels that drip out everything you’ve just cleaned up!)

7. Either dispose of paper towel in a waste bin OR place in pie pan and throw them all away at once when you finish

8. Record the volume of water remaining in the cylinder and subtract from the original 30ml to see how much water the towel absorbed

9. Repeat steps 3-8 two more times with the same brand of paper towel.

10. Now take the next brand of paper towel and do steps 3 – 9.

Record your data as you do the experiment. Once you are finished, calculate the average amount of water left for the 3 trials of each brand of paper towel.

Draw a bar graph of the average of the tests for each brand of paper towel. It will look something like this:

The independent variable in this experiment is the brand of paper towel i.e. it is the one the tester is changing. The independent variable is always on the X-axis.

The average amount of water (over the 3 trials) left in the cylinder is the dependent variable and the bar should be drawn to this height.

Now that you have the data, and the graph, students can reach a conclusion. They need to decide if their hypothesis was supported by the data or not (NOTE: scientists never say their hypothesis was ‘true’ or ‘false’ but only whether the result of their experiment supported the hypothesis or not)

The Science Behind It

Paper towel is made of plant fibers. Capillary action in the fibers draws the water into the paper towels. If you have a microscope, put a piece of paper towel under it for your children to look at. The fibers are made up of tiny linked sugar molecules called cellulose. Cellulose attracts water. If you look at paper towel under a microscope you will also see that there are spaces between the fibers – and those will hold water too.

To take this one step further, take a look at how much each roll of paper towel cost and try to calculate the cost of one “test strip” for each. Relate the cost to how absorbent the brand was and that should help you select what to buy in the future.

And your children can see a practical use for science!

Don’t forget to take a look at other DIY Summer Camp ideas to do with your children.

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It’s the moment every parent dreads – you’re going about your day when your child mentions that he or she has to do a science project. If you’re one of the lucky ones, your kid will let it slip a few days after it was assigned. But if you’re like most parents, you’ll find out about it the night before it’s due. Either way, we’ve got you covered with a few science fair project ideas to make sure your child scores a top grade (or at least stays out of summer school). Best of all, these science experiments for kids can be completed with common household items you most likely already have on hand.

Testing the Strength of Paper Towels

If you find yourself short on time, testing which paper towel brand is the strongest, makes for a simple yet fun paper towel science project.

Time Needed: 2 Hours

Materials Needed:

1 roll of Bounty paper towels 3 rolls of paper towels made by 3 separate brands. 1 large plastic tub 2 cups of water Notebook or journal Graph paper 125 quarters A partner

• Detach one towel from each roll of paper towels and label each one with the corresponding brand’s name.

• Have the partner hold one of the detached sheets over the plastic tub.

• Pour exactly ½ a cup of water onto the paper towel.

• Place the quarters (one at a time) onto the paper towel until it breaks.

• Record the results of which paper towel is the strongest.

• Repeat steps 1 through 5 for each brand of paper towels.
• Create a graph to illustrate the results.

Paper Towel Absorbency Experiment

If you liked the previous idea, but don’t have over thirty dollars in quarters laying around the house, your child can always test what brand of paper towel is most absorbent.

1 roll of Bounty paper towels 3 rolls of paper towels made by 3 separate brands. 1 cup of water An even wooden or plastic table Notebook or journal Graph paper

Under your supervision, have your child complete the following steps:

• Tear off one towel from each roll of paper towels and label each one with the corresponding brand’s name.

• Pour the water onto the table in four different sections. Each section should contain exactly ¼ of a cup of water. (Make sure to give yourself some room, sothe pools of water don’t overlap.)

• Place one paper towel over one pool of water.

• Wait ten seconds.
• Remove the paper towel, and record your findings of the paper towel absorbency in the notebook.
• Repeat steps 3 through 5 for each paper towel brand.
• Create a graph to illustrate the results of which paper towel absorbs the most water.

Seed Germination with Paper Towels

Supposing your child has a few days to complete the project, a seed germination experiment is relatively hassle-free, and usually goes over well with teachers and students alike. It’s a great paper towel science fair project because it only takes a few minutes to prepare. However, it does take a few days for the seeds to grow.

3 plastic cups Bounty paper towels (Bounty is highly absorbent, so results should be seen faster) 3 plastic (or regular) plates 1 gallon of distilled water Potting soil Journal or notebook 6 bean seeds (Bean seeds are pretty big, sprout quickly and are easy to work with) Graph paper

• Place the soil into the plastic cups.

• Plant a bean about ¼ inch deep in each cup containing the soil.

• Take three sheets of Bounty paper towels and fold each in half.

• Place each of the remaining seeds inside its own folded paper towel, then place each of the paper towels on its own plate.

• Water the paper towels and soil cups until wet (not soaking) and place all the seeds in a warm, dark room.

• Monitor the seeds daily and water the soil cups or wet the paper towels again when they start to dry out.

• Note which seeds germinated when, and chart your results on graph paper. Explain which process worked better, and which seeds produced the longest, thickest sprouts.

Paper Towels Color Bridge

Paper Towel Color BridgeHere’s an idea with lots of color and wow factor. Best of all, it’s fairly simple, quick and inexpensive.

3 clear plastic cups 2 cups of water Yellow food coloring Blue food coloring Spoon 1 roll of Bounty paper towels (Using Bounty will cut down on the time it takes to see results. The channels in the towels will dispense water faster than other brands.) Under your supervision, have your child complete the following steps:

• Fill two of the cups with 1 cup of water each.

• Add yellow food coloring to one and the blue to the other.

• Stir (remember to clean the spoon so you won't mix the colors).

• Arrange the cups so that the empty cup is in the middle.

• Tear off paper towels and roll them into tight tubes.

• Stick one end of each into one of the colored waters, and the other end into the empty middle cup.

• Observe the colored water as it travels up the paper towel.
• Document your findings.

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How to Do a Science Fair Project on Paper Towels

Science Projects on Which Paper Towel Is the Strongest

Science fair projects require a hypothesis, some amount of experimentation, and a final report and presentation that explain your findings. It is important to start planning your project early, as you will need time to complete each step of the project, and you cannot usually do this the night before the due date. If you want to do a science fair project about paper towels, one that centers on testing their strength when wet is a relatively easy way to go.

Create a chart for measuring the results of your experiment. This chart should have a row for each paper towel brand, with a column for brand name, number of coins, and rank.

Pull a sheet off each paper towel roll. Cut all of the sheets down to the same size.

Hold the first paper towel over the bowl of water. Have a couple of friends or family members hold each corner of the paper towel. The bowl catches any excess water and prevents a mess.

Add five teaspoons of water to the paper towel, and then start placing coins on top of it, one at a time. Place all of the water in the center of the towel.

Add quarters to the paper towel until it breaks. Record the number of coins on your data sheet. Once you have done this with all of the paper towels, you can rank them from strongest to weakest. Add quarters one at a time.

Write a report that uses the question, “Which brand of paper towels is the strongest when wet?” Describe the goals of your project, what occurred during your experiment, and the conclusions you drew. Your hypothesis can be an educated guess based on personal experience or advertising. For instance, if one brand of paper towel advertises itself as the strongest, your hypothesis could read, "Brand X is the strongest wet paper towel."

Create a backboard that has some examples of the paper towels, pictures from the experiment, and the most important parts of the report, like hypothesis, conclusion, and important data, such as the number of quarters each brand handled. (Your chart will work well here.) Use this backboard as a visual aid when describing your project.

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How Do Paper Towels Absorb Water?

By -->danit brown -->, posted february 28, 2017.

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Paper towels are made up of cellulose fibers, which also make up cotton, wood, and most other plants. These cellulose fibers are actually giant molecules that consist of many small molecules linked together.

Key To Absorption

The small molecules that combine to make up cellulose are sugar molecules; that's the key to the absorbency of paper towels.

Think how easily sugar dissolves in water. When you get a paper towel wet, the water molecules rush in and cling to the cellulose fibers. That's why paper towels are great at picking up spills.

Inedible Sugar

Although cellulose contains sugar molecules, that doesn't mean paper towels are edible. We humans don't have any of the enzymes necessary to split the cellulose molecule apart into the individual sugar molecules. That's why paper towels have no nutritional value for us.

Sources and Further Reading:

Bloomfield, Louis A. "How Things Work" at http://howthingswork.virginia.edu/. Accessed June 29, 2002.

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