Science Project on “Sucking Up the Water”, Project Experiment Topics on Human Beings, Animals Plants for Class 8, 9, 10 and 12 Students.

Sucking Up the Water

Materials Required:

1. A piece of cotton clothesline
2. Two small, baby-food jars
3. Water

Some plants and trees have many little roots. Others have one larger, long root going deep beneath the ground. But add up the “sucking’ area of the small roots, with all of their tiny parts, called “root hairs”, and you can understand how such a root will gather water faster than a larger root since its surface area is bigger. When it rains, the hairy root can quickly absorb the water for the plant or tree to survive, before the rain seeps deep into the soil. Having more root surface area makes it easier for plants to soak the water available.

Find out how much more water, small roots can gather, as compared to one large root. Take one end of a piece of cotton clothesline(have an adult cut out a piece for you). Unravel and spread out about two inches (5 cm) of the clothesline, until all the threads are separated. Fill two small jars with water until it’s half-full (be sure that the jars are of exactly the same size and are filled with the same water level). Dip the end of the clothesline with the loose strands into one of the jars. Let the strands just touch the bottom of the jar. Hold it there and count till ten. Then pull the clothesline out. Take the other end of the clothesline, with the strands, still wrapped tightly together. Dip it into the other jar until it touches the bottom. Hold it there and count till ten. Then pull the clothesline out. Compare how much water is left in each of the jars. Did the end of the clothesline with more individual “roots” gather more water than the “single root end”?