Hooked on Science: Phone book power

Using two phone books, you can prove the pages inside have muscles.

Materials

* Two phone books

Instructions

STEP 1: Overlap the pages of each book. For example, page one of the first phone book should overlap page one of the second phone book.

STEP 2: Have one person grasp the spine of one of the phone books while another person grasps the spine of the other phone book.

STEP 3: Attempt to separate the phone books by pulling.

Explanation

Because of friction, it is difficult to separate the phone books. Friction is the resistance between two objects. By overlapping all the pages in each phone book, you created a lot of friction.

Jason Lindsey is a Science Outreach Educator with Hooked on Science. Check out his website "Hooked On Science" at hookedonscience.org for webcasts and experiments that might get you hooked on science. Send him your science questions at jlindseyhookedonscience.org. More science experiments can be found at www.semissourian.com.