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Suspended bottle

Instructions

1. Fill the bottle with uncooked rice.

2. Plunge the pencil straight down into the bottle.

3. Try to lift the bottle just by the pencil. Why does this work?

4. Give the pencil a twist to get it out of the rice.

Troubleshooting:  Doesn't work: Plunge the pencil in a few times for compaction.

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You will need:

- A Coke bottle

- Uncooked Rice

- A pencil or chopstick or any other straight rod

The force introduced by the pencil is distributed amongst the tightly packed grains. The rice grains force against the pencil and the side of the coke bottle.

If you have compacted the rice enough, you should find the pencil effectively stuck (a little like when you wiggle your feet into wet sand at the beach and then try to pull your feet out again). This experiment will work with any bottle that has an opening with a smaller circumference than the bottle itself.

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