Star Scientist: Jerry Burke-Fisher

This week's Star Scientist, Jerry demonstrated what would happen when pennies are added to a full glass of water. Each student shared their hypothesis with the class...Some thought the pennies would become cleaner and most of the students said the water was going to overflow just like it does in the bathtub.


Jerry added one penny at a time...We were able to get 76 pennies in the glass before the water spilled over...Well, actually Miss Appel wanted to know what would happen if a handful of pennies were dumped in!

Jerry told us how the water has a special "skin" that keeps it from overflowing. "Now friends, the big word I will tell you is called surface tension". Hmmm...I wonder if this will happen with other liquids?