Name ______

Date ______

Period _____

How Do You Decide Which Paper Towel To Buy?

Background Information: Suppose that you are the new manager of Nacho Bell restaurant. The kitchen staff has complained that the paper towels they’re given to clean up spills are not absorbent enough. The procedures manual for your restaurant says that you are allowed to choose among four brands of paper towels. You decide to conduct an experiment to decide which brand of paper towel you should purchase.

Hypothesis: If we test the absorbency of different paper towels then ______will absorb the most water because ______

Procedure:

1.  Cut a 5 cm x 5 cm piece from each of four brands of paper towel. Lay each piece on a smooth, level, waterproof surface.

2.  For each square add a drop of water (making sure you’re counting the drops), check to see if the drop is absorbed.

3.  Continue to add the drops (and count them) until the towel absorbs no more water.

4.  Record your observations in a table and graph your results.

Data:

Brand of Paper Towel / Number of drops absorbed

Graph:

Analysis and Conclusions:

  1. Did all of the squares absorb equal amounts of water? ______

Which towel absorbed the most? ______

  1. If one paper towel absorbs more water than others, can you conclude that it is the towel you should buy? Explain. ______
  2. Which steps in the scientific method did you use to answer the question of which paper towel is the most absorbent? ______