Tin Foil Boats

SUPPLIES:

  • Tin foil
  • Bowl
  • Scissors
  • Pennies
  • Water

DIRECTIONS:

  1. Cut a piece of tin foil 5 x 6 inches.
  2. Fold up the sides of the boat so it will not sink and hold a cargo of pennies. Get creative and see if you can develop fancy boats.
  3. Place the boat in the bowl of water. Begin adding pennies for the boat's cargo.
  4. See how many pennies your boat can carry before it sinks.
  5. Have some friends over and try this experiment with them. See which one of you can create the boat that will carry the greatest amount of cargo.
  6. Be sure to dry the pennies before you begin adding them as cargo because remember water has weight!
  7. Have the person who created the boat begin adding pennies to their boat while another person counts the number of pennies as they are added to the boat.
  8. Try different ways to distribute the weight of the pennies on your barge so you can carry the maximum number.