Orange Buoyancy Science Experiment

Looking for a quick kids’ science experiment   that’s sure to wow little

scientists ? This simple buoyancy activity requires just a few common
household supplies. Kids will love learning why things sink and float in this
easy, hands-on experiment.

Playing in pools, floating down rivers, and bobbing about the ocean in their
PFDs; this summer has given us plenty of opportunity to see  buoyancy  at
work in everyday life.

My kiddos loved figuring out just what helps keep them afloat  with this oh-so-
simple twist on the classic sink or float experiment.  And I loved that this
experiment took a mere minutes to complete but had my kiddos giggling in
amazement.

Getting Ready
This experiment was ridiculously easy to set up.  I grabbed a tall glass vase
{a large bowl works too}, an orange, and water and we were ready to roll.

Sink or Float?
I called both my 3 and 5 year old over and asked them if they thought the
orange would sink or float in water.  They both felt the orange and said that it
was heavy and would sink. Next, I had each child pour water in the vase until
about 3/4 full.

Then we plopped the orange in to see if their prediction was correct.  The
kiddos were pretty amazed to find out they were wrong and the orange
actually floated!
After they tried to sink it by pushing and poking it under the water, I removed
the orange and asked them to peel the orange.

I then asked them if they thought the peeled orange would sink or float.
They both thought it would still float because it would get smaller with the
peel removed.
Wrong again!  The orange sank to the bottom.  My kiddos were thoroughly
confused.  They continued to take the peeled orange in and out of the water
to see if they could somehow get it to float again.

The Science Behind It

Why is it that a peeled orange sinks even though it is lighter than unpeeled
orange?  The secret lies in its peel.

Buoyancy  is the tendency of an object to float or sink in water or any other
fluid.  Whether an object is buoyant is determined by  Archimedes’
Principle  which states that any object in a fluid is buoyed up by a force equal
to the weight of the fluid displaced by the object.  When the orange is placed
in water there are two forces working upon it in opposite directions.
Gravitational force pulls the orange down while buoyant force pushes it
upwards.  Gravity pulls the orange down with a force equal it the weight of
the orange.

While buoyant force pushes the orange upwards with a force equal to the
weight of the water that the orange displaced.  If the orange can displace a
volume of water that equals (or is greater) than the weight of the orange than
it will be buoyant and float.

While making the orange weigh slightly more,  the peel of an orange
helps displace enough water to make the unpeeled orange buoyant.  The
peel is also full of tiny pockets of air that make the unpeeled orange less
dense than water and the the orange floats.  When you remove the peel the
orange no longer displaces enough water to overcome gravitational force, the
orange becomes more dense than water,  and it sinks.
To really make this experiment relevant to my kiddos, I explained that the
peeled orange was similar to them in a pool: they sink.  But once they put
their life jacket on, which is made of foam and contains tons of air pockets,
they displace more water while becoming less dense, and they float.