Little Stuff Wins Over Gravity Experiment

Procedure
Take a piece of clean, white paper. Make separate, small piles of table salt, pepper, and flour at one end. Toward the clean end of the paper, gently blow across all three piles. Watch what happens. The salt will move the least while the flour travels the farthest.

Scientific Principle at Work
The cross-sectional area of an object determines the force on it in a moving fluid. So smaller objects are more influenced by how the fluid (in this case the air you blew is the fluid) is moving around them. When you blow on the flour, it spreads out over a wider area.

Or, if you were to drop a bowling ball, a small rock, and a grain of sand at the same time, the bowling ball would hit the ground with a mighty thud, the rock with less of a thud, and the sand would strike the ground gently.

Note: If you’re under the age of 18, be sure your parent or guardian knows what you are doing. Some of these experiments require the use of simple household tools, such as scissors and knives, and some could make a mess. Ask your parent or another adult to help.

Aerosol household cleaners use very tiny droplets that stay mixed in spite of gravity. So cleaners like these can have a lot of water in them and be environmentally friendly.