| Got Wrinkles | |
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You have probably noticed that when you wash dishes, your hands get very wrinkled. (You do help with the dishes, don't you?) This experiment will give the answer.
You will need:
two glasses warm water
salt
Fill each glass 2/3 full of warm water. Mark one "water" and mark the other "salt water."
Leave the "water" glass as it is.
Pour salt into the "salt water" glass and stir. If all of the salt dissolves, add more.
Keep adding until no more will dissolve.
Place the glasses on a table, beside each other.
Place one finger into the "water" and another finger into the "salt water."
Your fingers should be in the water at least up to the first joint. Now sit there and wait......... Keep waiting........... Not yet............Almost done...........
After 5 minutes, take your fingers out of the water and compare them. You should find that the plain water finger is more wrinkled than the salt water finger.
Why? What makes your finger wrinkle?
Each of the cells in your body is like a tiny water balloon. There is a membrane surrounding the cell, much like a rubber balloon. This membrane will let water move through it, but the direction the water moves (in or out) depends on salt and other dissolved chemicals in the water. The water will move towards the highest concentration of salt. If the salt is more concentrated on the inside of the cell, as with the plain water, then water moves into the cell. This makes the cell bigger. If all of the skin cells on your finger get bigger, you wind up with a skin that is too big for your finger. This extra skin makes the wrinkles.
Don't worry. After your finger has been out of the water for a while, then the skin will shrink back into place. At this point, Scott asked his wonderful question. He asked if that meant that you would not get as wrinkled if you swam in the ocean. He was exactly right, as you can see from the finger that was in the salt water.
With more salt in the water, less of it moves into the cells. Your finger skin does not get much bigger and you get far fewer wrinkles. Before all of you adults get excited, no, soaking in salt water will not cure the wrinkles you get as you get older.
graphics from Microsoft Clip Gallery
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