The Paper Towel Experiment. I remember watching certain television commercials when I was kid about the absorbency and strength of paper towels. They seemed to always focus on people trying to wipe up large amounts of water and most of being dumped onto the floor or wet paper towels being stretched out and weight being applied and falling through immediately. Ultimately it was the thickest and newest paper towel that wiped up all the water without spilling any and held the weight. Even as a child I felt this was completely staged and new that major parts of the research was not shown. As an adult, I just choose what I feel is a reasonable brand and wipe away at home without any thought about the value or absorbency of what I am using. With this thought in mind I decided to test four different brands of paper towels to see which one was the most absorbent. I would test the hypothesis that a thicker and coarser paper towel did in fact absorb more water. I first looked to some previous tests to see what steps they took in their testing. The first test I found dipped the paper towels into water and squeezed the towels into a glass (Penzo, nd). While this test seemed to be a good ideal, I felt for the purpose of my test I wanted to find how much water the towel held, not how much I could squeeze out of it. I also found a test that used weight as the measure of absorbency. Consumer Reports weighed each dry towel, wet them, strained them across a pan to remove excess water and then weighed them again. While this seemed like a fair way to measure absorbency, I did not have a scale that could weigh that small of differences in weight so again I was left to my own testing devices. I decided a simple test taking four different brands of paper towels was in order. I packed up the SUV and paid a visit to Wal-Mart where I purchased a generic brand, two medium priced brands (Bounty Basic and Sparkle with Thirst Pockets) and a high end brand (Viva). All the different types of paper towels had sheets that were 11 inches by 11 inches, so comparing them would be fair since they were all the same size. I decided that taking various amounts of sheets and dipping them into water for 10 seconds to allow for complete absorbency and then pulling them out and allowing them to drip for 10 seconds so excess water is not measured would be a fair way to compare the different types of paper towels. Using a timer would make sure that that each paper towel was measured consistently. I felt the 6 ounces water would be a fair measure of absorbency and that I would measure each type of paper towel with 2, 3 and 4 sheets. I did not test one sheet by itself because who uses one piece of paper towel at a time? After letting the water drip back into the measuring cup, I measured the amount of water left and subtracted that from the original 6 ounces and that would be the amount of water absorbed by each paper towel. This met all the requirements of a proper experiment because it a independent variable (the amount of sheets of paper towel used) and a dependent variable (the time spent in water and dripping). To reduce the internal threats of validity, I felt at least one other person needed to be involved in the experiment. After all, if only one person is doing the experiment, it is not possible to validate the data and it may be biased or corrupt. With two people there is a control element between the two and they can validate the data together. With the tools assembled, plus some blue food coloring a friend and I started the experiment with some preconceived notions. Just by touch and feel, it seemed a logical conclusion that the thicker and coarser Viva brand would hands down be the most absorbent while the generic brand with its thinness and papery feel would be less absorbent. The two middle brands, tough seemed almost the exact same. I wondered how they would compare. The mitigating factor could be the “thirst pockets” advertised on the Sparkle brand. Would they actually absorb more water than the Basic Bounty brand without “thirst pockets”? I conducted the experiment and here are the results in a graph form with the amount of liquid absorbed by each brand by the amount of sheets used: Brand | 2 Sheets | 3 Sheets | 4 Sheets | Generic | 2 oz. | 2.5 oz. | 3.25 oz. | Bounty Basic | 2.75 oz. | 3.25 oz. | 3.5 oz. | Sparkle | 2.5 oz. | 3.25 oz. | 5.75 oz. | Viva | 3 oz. | 5.5 oz. | 6 oz. |

As you can tell, the more expensive and thicker Viva did in fact absorb the most water in each test and the generic version absorbed the least amount of water proving the hypothesis. The two middle brands though had a surprising result. When 2 and 3 sheets were used, the difference in the amount of water absorbed was minimal. , but when 4 sheets were used the difference was great. The reason for this difference seems to be the thirst pockets. In the experiments with 2 and 3 three sheets there was quite a bit a liquid not absorbed by the paper towels but in the final experiment with 4 sheets all the water was absorbed and any leftover dripped back into the measuring cup. The “thirst pockets” of the Sparkle (Pic B) held more water during the dripping process compared to the Bounty Basic (Pic A) and therefore shows that it absorbed more, although they both had absorbed the same amount prior to the dripping period. The following pictures demonstrate this:

Pic A

Pic B

In conclusion, the more expensive, thicker and coarser paper towel does in fact absorb more water. The cheaper generic paper towels did, in fact, absorb the least amount of water. This simple test using a measuring cup, timer, and colored water could easily be replicated by anyone wanting to test the hypothesis themselves. The design elements in this particular test make it easy to replicate since all the items used would be found in most homes. The design plan was instrumental in this experiment due to being able to reference back to how the experiment was to be conducted as well as my preconceived expectations. The experiment would also open up to testing other products such as toilet paper or wash clothes. The test of a good experiment is a solid hypothesis, as series of tests that leave reliable and viable data which proves or disproves the hypothesis. This experiment meets all of those requirements. I now know that when I go the store to purchase paper towels, spending a little extra money will get me a more absorbent towel.

References
Anonymous. (September 1987). “Paper Towels”. Consumer Reports. 581-587.
Penzo, Len. No date. “The Great Paper Towel Test: Which Brand is the Best Value?” Len Penzo dot com. http://lenpenzo.com/blog/id1122-the-great-paper-towel-test-what-brand-is-your-best-value.html