We tried two different ways but before we investigated, we all made a prediction about which material would be best for the job: J-cloth, kitchen roll, plastic, or dish cloth.
Once we made our prediction we worked together to find out which was the most absorbent material.
We used a pipette to put the same amount of water on to a tray and then placed a square of each cloth on each puddle. We then measured the diameter of the puddle absorbed up by each material. The kitchen roll absorbed most of the water up but left the kitchen roll a bit soggy whereas the J-cloth absorbed up all of the liquid. The dishcloth didn't really absorb any water up and nothing happened with the plastic - it just settled on the top. We recorded our results ready to put into a table. We kept the water the same and the size of the cloth the same to make it a fair test.
The tray with the testing patches.
Measuring and recording the diameter of the puddle
Measuring the water using a pipette.
We also used a dipping method. We hung the 1 piece of each material on a brush and made sure they were all level at the bottom. The kitchen roll and the J-cloth again were the most absorbent but we discussed the differences between them both and decided kitchen roll wasn't strong enough.
Plastic, J-cloth, dish-cloth and kitchen roll after the water had absorbed into the materials
Setting up the dipping method.
As a conclusion, we decided that Pirate Pete should used the J-cloth as this would make the best mop as it was the most absorbent and the strongest. Poppy noticed that some mops are made of the J-cloth type of material. George wondered if the dish cloth, despite many predicting that it would be the most absorbent, was actually not very absorbent because of the holes in the materials.
