What paper towel brand is the strongest?

March 16,2021

Ramirez Edith

Mrs.Zander

Science 7th

Abstract:

The purpose of this experiment is to determine what paper towel brand is the strongest by putting pressure on a

paper towel until it tears. Paper towels have been of such use to mankind,by absorbing messes and holding any type

of liquids. There will be four paper towel brands that people use daily. By determining which one is the strongest is

by having half a cup of water poured onto a sheet of paper towel placing as many pennies until it tears. The

hypothesis is that bounty will be the strongest paper towel brand. Since it has been more publicly viewed and claims

to be the strongest. The result is that the Bounty paper towel brand is the strongest since it held more pennies than

the other brands.

Introduction:

Many paper towel brands claim to be the strongest. Paper towels are a great use not just to clean

up messes but to help hold any liquids.Some claim to be the most absorbing. What makes paper

towels so strong to claim they are the best to use? Well, it is what causes them to become strong.

Paper towels are all made up of these small molecules that make up cellulose fibers, and cotton.

Cellulose fibers have empty spaces-tiny air bubbles-between them, they become very absorbent

and strong. Not just cellulose fibers make them strong, cotton also helps. The reason why is

because cotton is most efficient at absorbing or soaking up water. Cotton is able to absorb up to

27 times its weight in liquid water, according to Cotton Inc.

However, the experiment(s) are going to tell which of the paper towel brands is the strongest. For

the experiment, there will be four different paper towel brands that will be tested by placing as

many pennies until it tears. To track which one breaks first is by counting the number of pennies

being placed onto the wet paper towel.

Methods and Materials:

● Four types of paper towels(1 generic and 3 brand-name)

● Scissors
● 250 ml(1 cup) liquid measuring cup
● Half a cup of water
● 250 pennies
● A steep rectangular container( to hold the excess water)
● A supervisor or parent to aid during the project

Data:
Procedure:

For this experiment there will be testing of what a paper towel brand is the strongest. There will

need to be a steep rectangular container that will hold the excess water when pouring the water.

For safety measures there will be sharp objects that can cause harm. Scissors will be needed to

have supervision by an adult. The process of the project will include 1:cut a piece for each four

paper towels evenly or ripped as they are already provided for you. Step 2: there will be a need

of your 250 ml(1 cup) liquid measuring cup and water filled half way. Step 3: gather all of your

penmies in this case 250 pennies. Step 4: have the help of a parent to pour the water slowly onto

the paper towel so the excess water falls into the container that is under the water so the water

doesn't spill. Step 4:place as many pennies into the paper towel while counting. Step 5: when the

paper towel tears or until you run out of pennies count carefully and record it in your data table.

Step 6: Repeat with each other paper towel.A very important step was to not add too much water

causing it to break.

Results:

After testing all of the products,Bounty was the strongest paper towel. No other paper towel

came close to the amount of pennies bounty was able to hold which was 230 pennies. The fact
that a wet sheet of paper was able to hold that many pennies was outstanding. The brand that

came in second place was Viva which was only able to hold an average of 225 pennies . It was

amazing how close the amount of pennies were compared to the Bounty.The results were not as

expected. The brand sparkle was very close but did not make the charts, but as expected Bounty

won.The chart that shows which paper towel brand held the most pennies it is becuse the spare

towel was stronger due to the fact that the Cellulose fibers have empty spaces-tiny air

bubbles-between them, they become very absorbent and strong. Not just cellulose fibers make

them strong, cotton also helps. The reason becuse cotton is most efficient at absorbing or soaking

up water. Cotton is able to absorb up to 27 times its weight in liquid water, according to Cotton

Inc.

Discussion:

The results were not as expected. The reason is because the hypothesis that was stated was

correct but not expected because since bounty is more publicly viewed and used there was a

thought that it was going to win but when the brand viva was recorded into the data table it was

very close so there was second guessing that Viva was going to win. The results weren’t just

different than expected becuse of the reason that was stated, but because bounty had way more

pennies than any other brand which is stated in the data table but the amount of pennies that were

used to hold up a paper towel was amazing.It was quite hard for the information to sink in but

that was something that was not expected in the results.There have been quite some errors in this
experiment(s). The reason is because there is a need to add half a cup of water to each paper

towel as stated in the methods and materials, but there has been added 1 cup instead. Since it had

less water it helped the paper towels in test 1 to become stronger. Since there was a need to do

one cup and a half there was a need to restart test 1. This step can be effective to the experiment

because there is information that helps show how much water is needed causing there to be no

errors. How to avoid this mistake is simple, there is a need to pay attention to the methods and

materials that were listed, or what should’ve been done was to write a short procedure or steps to

follow while doing the experiment so there are no errors. A second error was the penny counting.

While counting the pennies as they were carefully placed onto the wet paper towel there had

been some miscounting. It became difficult because when they were being discounted it messed

up the data table so there was a need to restart. A way to avoid this error would be to write down

or tally how many tens there are for example,have a piece of paper with a pen or pencil and write

down a tally every time you reach 10 then when you reach 20 that will be another tally. This step

could be more effective because it won’t just cause less errors, it will keep it organized by not

messing up and keeping track.

Conclusion:

The main question that was asked is: what paper towel brand is the strongest? The answer to this

question is bounty. The reason supporting this is that bounty helps the most amount of pressure

since it held 230 pennies. This experiment was really simple and ran very smoothly becuse the
materials and procedure was not complicated at all. A really important step is to make sure you

have the same amount of water for each time you place it into a towel, for example in you pour

two cups of water the towel will become soggy and break so make sure to add the amount of

water specified in the methods and materials. If there was too much water the experiment would

not work. Overall this experiment was successful.

Reflections:

The project was challenging. It caused some problems but was eventually solved. I think it was

very outstanding how Bounty won compared to the rest of the brands.How this is shown is

becuse the data shows how many pennies it held and the weight which was measured in grams.It

is amazing how the pressure of pennies can cause paper towels to break. It was amazing to see

and count how many pennies a paper towel can hold. It was difficult becuse sometimes I missed

counting the amount pennies and had to redo it was painful. It was nice how in the end it all

added up. It was challenging to measure everything in grams but I figured it out. Overall this

project was simple and fun and recommend.