Why does water climb up paper towels?

Question

If you soak a paper towel you can spot the water climbing up the water. How does that happen? Is it a specific property of water that allows water to do this?

Thank you.

Answer 1

Capillary action.

With water it's the high surface tension property, combined with the fiber construction of paper towels.

Answer 2

um...maybe the water just wants to get to the top so that it can enjoy the slide down....dont worry about water and towels, just go on living. some things dont need to be understood

Answer 3

To get to the top!

Answer 4

WOW you really are BORED arent you?

Answer 5

Capillary action. Also, if you put a little food coloring in the water you will find that you get different colors as the water moves up the towel. This is the basis for an analytical technique called "paper chromatography". It is used often to tell where column chromatography will separate chemicals into ALMOST their pure state. Good lessons to be learned in ORDINARY observations. Pasteur found penicillin that way!  

Answer 6

ITS CALLED CAPILLARY ACTION.

Water will soak into a paper towel if any part of the paper touches the water, just as it will climb up a thin tube if an open end of the tube is in water. Water behaves this way because of an effect called capillary action. Capillary action happens when bonding of a liquid's molecules to themselves is less than the attraction to another substance the molecules are touching.