Bottle flip experiment

I saw you trying this in class. Now you can be experts in flipping bottles if you follow the instructions given below.

You will need:

• A plastic bottle suitable for flipping
• Measuring jug
• Water 

Activity: 

Find a plastic bottle generally used for bottle flipping. 

Without adding any water, flip it 50 times onto a surface and record the number of successful flips.

Add 50ml of water to the bottle and flip it 50 times onto a surface. Record the number of successful flips.

Repeat the last step until the bottle is full! (That’s a lot of flips!). 

Result: (watch out, spoilers!) 

The experiment shows that if there is more water than less, the chances of a successful bottle flip increase. The ideal amount of water is around 60–80 percent full (with the optimum percentage of water at 67 percent). 

One of the problems with this experiment is that it is not totally fair. The more you flip, the better you can get. This may also explain why there are more successful flips as the experiment progresses. It would be great if you could make a robot to flip the bottle! This would make for a fairer experiment.