I used an eye dropper filled part way with water for my diver. I put colored water in the eye dropper - I think it makes it easier to see what's happening.
Put the cap on the bottle.
Squeeze the bottle and watch the diver dive!
Why does it dive?
When you squeeze the bottle, you compress the air molecules that are trapped in the bottle, including those inside the eye dropper. When that air is compressed, additional water enters the dropper (since there's room available). The additional water (and decreased volume of air) changes the density of the dropper enough to cause the dropper to sink to the bottome of the bottle.
A Cartesian diver can be used to explain all kinds of things, like how submarines work, how fish swim bladders work, etc.
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You can also use ketchup (or other condiment) packs as Cartesian divers. In that case, water doesn't enter the packet, it dives strictly because of the change in density due to the compression of air molecules.
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