How to make a water compass By:Marie

Investigation Question How does a water compass work?

Hypothesis I think that the water compass will not work perfectly as a regular compass.

Materials Metal sewing needle A magnet/any kind A pair of pliers A cork wide cup,drinking glass,or bowl,and also water to put in the wide cup drinking glass or bowl Scissors for cutting the cork

PROCEDURE 1)Rub the magnet against the needle at least five times. IIf you are using a weaker magnet, like a refrigerator magnet rub it a dozen times. Always rub it in the same direction. 2)Now cut off one-quarter inch of one of the sides of the cork making a small cork disk that is about one-quarter inch tall.

Procedure(cont.) 3. Laying the cork disk on a flat surface, carefully push the needle through the side of the disk with the pliers so about the about the same amount of needle is on the same side. 4. Fill a wide cup, drinking glass, or bowl with at least one inch of water. 5. Put the cork disk in the wide cup, drinking glass or bowl in the water. Try to keep the disk floating in the middle of the wide cup,drinking glass, or bowl away from the sides.

Data When I put the cork in the water it spins around and points to North on the side of the bowl. Then it goes forward and backwards and forwards again, still pointing North. When I keep turning the cork around, and putting the cork back in the middle of the bowl it keeps going back to the side of the bowl pointing North.

Extra After I located North in my house the compass was pointing the same way. When I put the magnet next to the needle it tries to connect to the magnet, and I can move the compass all over the bowl. Also the magnet needs to be about five inches or less to affect the compass.

Conclusion I learned that if you make your own water compass at home it will still works good like a regular compass. My hypothesis was correct because it did point North like a real compass. I was surprised that it was pointing exactly North. One thing that I would do differently next time is to not touch the water compass when I put it in the compass. My question for the further study study is how to make a real compass.