Introduction: Magic Coffee Beans

By Pakciencia

Use "magic" coffee beans to turn marbles into table tennis balls!

Step 1: Necessary Materials

  • Plastic box
  • Marbles
  • Table Tennis Balls
  • Coffee Beans

Step 2: How to Prepare the Experiment

  1. Fill the plastic box with the coffee beans

  2. Place the table tennis balls on top of the coffee beans

  3. Bury them until they are not visible.

  4. Place the marbles over the coffee beans.

  5. Now just shake the box with left / right movements

Step 3: Science Explains!

All materials have their own density. In this experiment we are using table tennis balls that are less dense than coffee beans and marbles that are denser than table tennis balls and coffee beans.


When we shake the box we are making the materials organize by density. Being the densest at the bottom of the box (the marbles), in the middle the coffee beans and the least dense at the top (the table tennis balls).

Remember that the density of a substance is its mass per unit volume.