2 Tape the other end of the strip to the middle of a pencil. 3 Place the pencil on the glass so that the strip hangs straight down into the middle of the glass. Carefully add water to the glass so that the water level just reaches the bottom of the strip. Only the filter paper below the dot should touch the water. 4 Observe what happens within the next few minutes.
Paper is made up of a lot of fibers.
These fibers act as tiny highways through which the water molecules pull themselves. This is cohesion in action. Since water molecules also have a great attraction for each other, they drag each other along these fiber routes. This is adhesion in action. Black ink is really made up of dyes of many colors, though you can't see them when they are mixed.