Scientific fun in just one minute

One more beautiful family experiment!

Safe­ty pre­cau­tions

Warn­ing! Only un­der adult su­per­vi­sion.

Equip­ment

  • pa­per tow­el;
  • felt-tip pens;
  • wa­ter.

Step-by-step in­struc­tions

Fold a pa­per tow­el in half. Draw some­thing on the low­er half with felt-tip pens and fold the blank up­per half over it. Im­merse it in wa­ter and watch as your im­age “de­vel­ops” on the up­per half of the pa­per tow­el!

Process de­scrip­tion

Pa­per tow­els con­sist of cel­lu­lose fibers with a lot of voids be­tween them. Wa­ter fills these voids, en­velop­ing and stretch­ing the fibers. This forms “con­ve­nient” trans­par­ent chan­nels that light can pass through. And the draw­ing on the low­er half of the pa­per tow­el in­stant­ly ap­pears on the up­per half!

Even more cre­ative ex­per­i­ments await you in the “Art Lab” set from the MEL Sci­ence sub­scrip­tion.

Try it