Monday, November 28, 2011

Dissecting a Diaper

Mystified by the amount of water a single diaper can hold? 

If you've got a few extra diapers laying around after last week's experiment, consider dissecting one and to learn what's inside. 


You'll need a diaper, a pair of scissors, and a zip-top bag.  You may also find it convenient to work over a black piece of paper.

Begin by cutting a slit in the diaper.

Pull the "stuffing" out of the diaper and place it in the bag. 

At this point, you may feel some small granules, and notice white powder gathering on your piece of black paper.  These are sodium polyacrylate crystals - the magical component of disposable diapers. 

You can gather additional crystals by sealing the bag and shaking it for a minute or two. 

While shaking, the crystals should separate from the cotton and settle at the bottom for the bag. 

Once you've isolated the crystals, you can experiment with them (though you won't have very many from a single diaper).  See how much water they absorb.  Or try one of the water-absorbing crystal tricks mentioned here. 

Again, it could be interesting to compare the crystals found in different brands of diapers - are they all the same size, do they come in the same quantity? 

A good scientific exploration to learn more about the world around us, and also an introduction to polymer chemistry!
Posted by at
Labels: ,

3 comments:

  1. AnonymousNovember 9, 2018 at 10:40 AM

    thx

    ReplyDelete
  2. monika loveNovember 8, 2019 at 1:51 PM

    I has suffered for Human papillomavirus HPV) for 2years, I was given some tablets at the hospital but I refused to take it, They said I have to be on it for life so I don't want take a drugs everyday for life. No point in taking medicine everyday when u won't get cure from it and I was advice to seek for natural herbal cure, after some time I found dr onokun is the most trustful herbalist that have herbs to cure wicked symptom's,I emailed dr onokun, for 2weeks been his patient he cured my (HPV) with his herbal. I only used his natural herbs for two weeks it was 100% cure. I'm not (HPV) patient anymore. I'm happy about it i finally got cured out of this mess been in my body for 2years. I also recommend you if you're living with (HPV) or herpes symptoms i also want you to be free contact dr onokun with the email attach to my post. Dronokunherbalcure@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. Tanzir AhmedMay 12, 2020 at 2:49 AM

    Can't still believe that i got cured from Genital Herpes through herbal treatment from Dr LUCKY  who I met through the internet, I actually couldn't believe it at first because it sounded impossible to me knowing how far I have gone just to get rid of it. Dr LUCKY send me his medicine which I took as instructed and here I am living a happy life once again, a big thanks to Dr LUCKY , I am sure there are many herbal doctors out there but Dr LUCKY did it for me, contact him on Email him; { drluckyherbalcure@gmail.com }  

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)