The Hidden Strength of Paper Towels

Overview

Objectives/Goals My objetive for doing this project is to find out which paper towel brand has the strongest paper towels. Methods/Materials To test a paper towel brand, I place a paper towel over two layers of bricks (there were four bricks in each layer)and then I place a third layer of bricks over the sheet to weigh down the paper towel. Then I poured a 10 milliliter baby medicine spoon full of water into the center of the paper towel using a contraption made of tinker toys. Twenty seconds after the water is poured half ounce fishing weights would be rolled down a ramp into the paper towel every five seconds until the sheet breaks. The weight that breaks the sheet is not included in the number of weights it held. Twenty-nine paper towel brands were tested three times each. Results The strongest paper towel was Bounty with Brawny coming in second. Third strongest was CVS Big Quilts and fourth was Thirsty. The two least strongest, which held zero weights in all three tests, were Earthfirst and Mardi Gras. Conclusions/Discussion My hypothesis was partially true. The more expensive paper towels, Brawny and Bounty, did test stronger overall. Although, the third strongest, CVS Big Quilts, wasn't very expensive and tested qite strong. However it has less sheets. CVS Big Quilts has 60 sheets, while Brawny and bounty have 80. In conclusion, I think the consumer needs to not only look at the price of the paper towels, but also at the information on the packaging.

Competition history

• CSEF 2007 Product Science (Junior Division Only) · Entry J1831

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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