This Walking Water Rainbow science experiment is super easy to do and just so much fun. Such a perfect colourful experiment.

Check out the list of materials that we use with this activity.

Walking Water Rainbow Experiment

To complete this experiment, you will need:

six cups – clear, glass or plastic
red, blue and yellow food colouring
paper towels
water
Experiment Worksheet

To complete this experiment, first place the six cups in a row and fill up the 1st, 3rd, and 5th cups with water until they are ½ full.

Add 4 drops of food colouring as follows:

First cup – 4 drops of red food colouring
Third cup – 4 drops of yellow food colouring
Fifth cup – 4 drops of blue food colouring

You could leave the cups in a row or arrange in a circle. If arranging in a circle, the first cup should be the red cup, followed by an empty cup, the third cup is the yellow cup, the fourth cup is empty. The fifth cup should be blue and the sixth cup is empty.

If completing the experiment worksheets, now is the time to fill out the hypothesis.

Take a sheet of paper towel and fold it in half, lengthwise. Then fold it again lengthwise. Cut the ends of the paper towel so that it creates an arch over the cups, but isn’t too high.

Place one half of the paper towel, lengthwise, into each cup so that one part of the paper towel is in a cup of coloured water and the other end is in an empty cup. Repeat these steps until there is one end of paper towel in each cup.

Now is the time to watch and see. The coloured will begin to crawl up the paper towel and leak into the empty cup.

This dripping water will mix with other colours in the empty cups to create a rainbow. Keep coming back throughout every half hour or so to observe what is happening.

When you have competed the experiment, take the paper towels out of the cups and lay them on a baking tray to look at all the colours.

How does this work?

The coloured water slowly moves up the paper towel through a process known as capillary action. The paper towel is made from fibres and the water is able to travel through the gaps in the fibres. These gaps act like capillary tubes, pulling the water upward. This is the same action that helps water climb from a plant’s roots to the leaves at the top of the plant or tree. Water is able to move upward against gravity because of the attractive forces between the water and the fibers in the paper towel.

Walking Water Rainbow Experiment

Simple Living. Creative Learning

This Walking Water Rainbow science experiment is super easy to do and just so much fun. Such a perfect colourful experiment.

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Ingredients

Instructions

To complete this experiment, first place the six cups in a row and fill up the 1st, 3rd, and 5th cups with water until they are ½ full.
Add 4 drops of food colouring as follows:
First cup - 4 drops of red food colouring
Third cup - 4 drops of yellow food colouring
Fifth cup - 4 drops of blue food colouring
You could leave the cups in a row or arrange in a circle. If arranging in a circle, the first cup should be the red cup, followed by an empty cup, the third cup is the yellow cup, the fourth cup is empty. The fifth cup should be blue and the sixth cup is empty.
If completing the experiment worksheets, now is the time to fill out the hypothesis.
Take a sheet of paper towel and fold it in half, lengthwise. Then fold it again lengthwise. Cut the ends of the paper towel so that it creates an arch over the cups, but isn't too high.
Place one half of the paper towel, lengthwise, into each cup so that one part of the paper towel is in a cup of coloured water and the other end is in an empty cup. Repeat these steps until there is one end of paper towel in each cup.
Now is the time to watch and see. The coloured will begin to crawl up the paper towel and leak into the empty cup. This dripping water will mix with other colours in the empty cups to create a rainbow.

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Walking Water Rainbow Experiment