What you need:
Wooden toothpicks, a dinner plate, water, dropper
What to do:
1. Take five toothpicks and bend them from the middle in a way that they break but the halves don’t separate.
2. Arrange the toothpicks on the plate so that their split centres are touching each other. They should form a closed five-pronged star.
3. Fill the dropper with water. Start putting drops of water over the centre of the star, close to the split parts of the toothpicks. The broken ends need to get soaked.
What happens?
The star ‘opens up like magic!
Why?
The water gets absorbed into the wood by ‘capillary action. Capillary action is the movement of a liquid against gravity, through narrow spaces. This is the same principle that allows water to be absorbed by a tree’s roots and transported to its leaves.
In this case, wooden toothpicks that have been made from trees also have narrow spaces or capillaries in them.
These absorb water along the length of the toothpick and cause it to get swollen.
Picture Credit : Google
