Float and win

Ting Tong! Ram ran to the door as he heard the bell ring.

"I missed you didi. Welcome back." His eyes sparkled seeing Radha after a long time.

Radha was stuck in her college hostel for the last few months due to COVID-19 related travel restrictions.

"I missed you too Ram" her eye filled with happiness.

"Didi, I didn't hear you sing the happy b'day song twice. Did you wash your hands with soap and water for twenty seconds to kill all the virus?" He asked Radha while she was trying to settle down on the couch.

"Yes, boss! I did." Radha smiled.

"So, now that you are back, lets play some games? I have been waiting for this day for so long."

"Oh, Ram, let didi eat something first. She has just arrived, and you have already started bothering her" his dad smiled while reheating the dinner in a microwave.

"Didi, tell me. What is the game plan? snake and ladder, ludo or cards? Whatever be the game, I will be the winner. Shall I bring the cards?"

"I am bored of these games. Let's play something different. Shall we?" Radha proposed.

"You mean a new game? That is interesting! What game is it?" He couldn't control his curiosity.

"float and win. That's the game." Radha told.

"Sounds like scratch and win. I like the name. How do we play it?" Ram sounded clueless.

"I will explain it to you. Come, let's have dinner first." Radha invited Ram to the dinner table.

"I already had dinner. Please eat fast and come, let's play. I can't wait to float and win!"

"We need to accumulate a few things before we could play this game. Could you do it while I finish my dinner?" Radha asked Ram.

"Why not? Tell me, I shall bring everything we will need". Ram looked very excited about the game.

"A bucket, some water, some candles, few plastic bottles, a needle, one spoon, forks and spatula from the kitchen, a thermocol box, some oil, some vegetables and fruits some coins and maybe some ice cubes."

"Stop stop, let me first bring all of them, I might forget otherwise" Ram ran to collect the items and came back quickly with everything in the list.

"All set! Tell me how to play this game, please"

"The game is to choose items from this inventory you just made and put them in the water-filled bucket." Radha paused for a moment to drink some water.

"What? what kind of game is that? Are you kidding?" Ram is annoyed hearing Radha's stupid game plan.

"Haha Ram, wait. Let me finish first. So, while you put each item in water, if it floats, you get a point. If it sinks I get a point and vice versa. So the one who floats the most number of objects will win. Ready?"

"I am ready. I will be the floating champion." He confidently announced.

"So who will go first?" Radha asked

"Me." he couldn't wait to start playing the game.

"Okay then. Start!"

"There are so many items here. What shall I choose? Maybe the smallest among these." Ram told himself while picking up the needle to deposit into the bucket.

He threw the needle inside the bucket and ran inside to bring a scorecard to note down the scores.

"So. I should get one point now. It must be floating." He announced while coming back with the board.

"Come and check first!" Radha smiled.

"What, how did such a small needle sink. I thought it will float. After all, it is so small." He looked disappointed.

"So, I get a point. My turn now." Radha chose a wooden spatula from the items and placed it inside the water.

"Didi, that is a stupid choice. If a small needle could sink, this big spatula will surely sink." Ram felt hopeful about the one point a sinking spatula could fetch him.

"Damn! it is floating." Ram couldn't believe his eyes.

"Maybe you shouldn't worry about the size of these objects anymore." Radha winked at him.

"So the score is 2-0 now." Radha updated the scoreboard.

"It's my turn again. Let me think harder this time." He looked around for an object that could fetch him his first point.

"I will be right back." He took the ball and a fork and walked to the kitchen in search of the weighing balance.

"Ball 140grams and fork 50grams. So we have a clear winner here!" He ran back with the fork and threw it in the water-filled bucket almost certain about his intelligent weighing strategy paying off this time.

"What? Come on!" I think the weighing machine in the kitchen is not doing its job right! He looked annoyed as the fork quickly sunk in the water. It touched the bottom of the bucket.

"Bhlumm Bhlumm!" Radha mimicked the sound of a sinking object to tease Ram and changed the scores to 3-0.

Radha took the ball that Ram had just abandoned and placed it inside water, successfully floating it. The score is 4-0 now. Ram's eyes filled with disappointment.

Sad and disheartened, he couldn't think of any more strategies to win this game. The third time, he decided to test his luck. He randomly picked up a plastic bottle from the remaining objects and threw it into the bucket.

"Hurray! it's floating. I get a point, I get a point! he jumped off the floor extremely excited.

"Where is the scoreboard?" He ran to the scoreboard to proudly place a 1 below his name.

Subsequently, Radha placed ice cubes to earn more points.

Ram earned points by floating thermocol box and an apple.

Followed by potato and coins, oil also made its way to the bucket, slowly improving both Ram and Radha's scores.

"Didi, how is it possible that such a small needle sunk while this big thermocol box and this heavy ball did not?" Despite losing the game, Ram was eager to know more.

"Ram, whether or not an object will sink is not decided by its weight or size. It is decided by a property of the material, known as the density."

"Density? What is it?" He asked curiously.

"You know everything in this universe is made of small units called..."

"Molecules!" Ram completed Radha's sentence before she could finish.

"Right, depending on the way these molecules are packed, the material properties will change. If you have molecules tightly packed inside a tiny volume, the material will be highly dense. If you pack the molecules loosely into a larger volume the material will have a lower density. Or simply, the amount of matter packed in a unit volume is called the density."

"But how does this decide if it should sink or float?" The connection between density and floating was surely not obvious to him yet.

"If you place an object into water, it will sink if the density of the material with which it is made is higher than the density of water. If the object has a smaller density than water, it will float."

"Oh! So needle and fork sunk because the material they both are made of are denser than water."

"That's right, and the wooden spatula and plastic bottle floated because they are less denser than water," Radha added.

"So it is not the weight or the size, it is the density of the material that matters. Steel is denser than rubber. That is why the rubber ball floated, even if it is heavier than the steel fork. Right didi?" Ram asked.

"Absolutely, Ram."

"And remember the oil? Oil is less dense than water. That is why it floated on top of the water. Also, oil does not like to mix with water. So it tends to stay separated from the water." Radha added.

"Yes, I remember. Oil is hydrophobic. It hates water and it can not mix with water." He recollected the fancy term he learned in the past.

"Now, can you tell me why is a wooden spatula not floating in the air?" Radha asked.

"Is it because wood is denser than air?" Ram looked at Radha for her assurance.

"Yes! see, now you got a hang of it" Radha placed a gentle tap on Ram's shoulders as a token of appreciation.

"Well, now that I know how to float and win, do you dare to play another round?" Ram challenged Radha.

"Haha, maybe tomorrow. I think we should clear everything off the floor and go to bed soon." Radha smiled.