Paper Boat Buoyancy Experiment | Spanish A2
Build a paper boat, test its shape with coins, and learn why water pushes floating objects upward in this A2 Spanish story.
Construyendo un barco de papel que flota
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About this article
What you'll learn
science experiments, paper crafts, buoyancy, preterite and imperfect, 15 learning cards
A class folds paper boats and tests them with coins. One boat gets wet and sinks, so the teacher explains displacement and buoyancy: the boat floats while its shape can push aside enough water to support its weight and load. The A2 story practices paper craft and science vocabulary with preterite and imperfect.
After reading
Article learning block
Phrases, words, grammar, and quick practice from this text.
Phrases for training
Add useful phrases to SRS or mark them as already known.
hacer un experimento divertido
newto do a fun experiment
In Spanish an experiment is something you "do": hacer un experimento. In the text the phrase is in the preterite because the story happened yesterday: "Ayer hice un experimento divertido".
hacer is irregular in the preterite: hice, hiciste, hizo, hicimos, hicisteis, hicieron.
así que absorbía agua rápido
newso it absorbed water quickly
"así que" introduces the result, never the cause. The cause comes first: "El papel normal no es impermeable, así que absorbía agua rápido".
This is the everyday spoken equivalent of "so": "Llovía, así que no salimos".
flotar en el agua
newto float on water
"flotar" is to stay on the surface. Its opposite runs through the whole text: "hundirse", to sink, as in "se mojó y se hundió".
flotar and hundirse are the pair the entire experiment is built on.
la quilla que lo mantiene estable
newthe keel that keeps it stable
Note "lo": the object pronoun stands for "el barco" and goes before the verb, not after it as in English.
"mantener + adjective" is a productive pattern: mantener limpio, mantener seco, mantener estable.
no es impermeable
newis not waterproof
"impermeable" is built from "im-" plus "permeable": it does not let water through. Plain paper is not waterproof; the tape and the foil made the boat waterproof.
As a noun, "un impermeable" is a raincoat.
los objetos flotan cuando el agua que desplazan pesa más que ellos
newobjects float when the water they push aside weighs more than they do
This is Archimedes principle in A2 words. Note the comparison "pesa más que ellos": más que followed by a pronoun.
The same idea explains the hollow steel ship at the end of the text.
Key words
Vocabulary that carries the school-day topic.
Buoyancy
flotabilidad
buoyancy
"flotabilidad" comes from "flotar" plus the suffix "-idad", which builds abstract nouns the way English "-ity" does: facilidad, velocidad, flotabilidad.
Nouns ending in "-idad" are always feminine: la flotabilidad.
Thick
grueso
thick
"grueso" describes how thick a material is: papel grueso, un libro grueso, un jersey grueso. Its opposites are "fino" and "delgado".
It matters in the experiment: thin paper soaks through at once.
Hollow
hueco
hollow
"hueco" means empty inside. Real ships are hollow, and that is exactly why a steel ship floats: the air inside makes it lighter than the water it displaces.
As a noun, "un hueco" is a gap or a free slot: "tengo un hueco a las cinco".
To displace, to move aside
desplazar
to displace, to move aside
"desplazar" is to move something out of its place. A floating boat pushes water aside, and that displaced water is what holds it up.
The reflexive "desplazarse" means to travel or get around: "me desplazo en bici".
Competition, contest
competencia
competition, contest
"competencia" is a contest between people or things. Careful: it looks like English "competence" but does not mean it.
In Spain a sporting contest is usually "una competición"; "competencia" in this sense is normal in Latin America.
To hold out, to withstand
resistir
to hold out, to withstand
"resistir" is to take a load or hold out against something. "El barco ganador resistió cinco monedas" means it stayed afloat with five coins on board.
Also used about people and weather: "resistir el frío" is to withstand the cold.
Grammar in context
Patterns from the text worth noticing after reading.
Preterite: regular verbs
ayudó, aprendimos, doblamos
ayudó, aprendimos, doblamos: regular preterite forms
Regular preterite endings: -ar verbs take -é, -aste, -ó, -amos, -asteis, -aron; -er and -ir verbs take -í, -iste, -ió, -imos, -isteis, -ieron. So ayudar gives ayudó, doblar gives doblamos, aprender gives aprendimos.
Watch the accent: "ayudo" with no accent means "I help", "ayudó" means "he or she helped". The accent is the whole difference.
Superlative: el más + adjective
el más estable
el más estable = the most stable
"más" on its own makes a comparative: más estable, more stable. Add the article and it becomes a superlative: "el más estable", the most stable of them all. The article agrees with the noun: el más, la más, los más, las más.
Four adjectives use special forms instead: bueno gives el mejor, malo gives el peor, grande gives el mayor, pequeño gives el menor.
Preterite against imperfect
ganó / era
ganó (the event) against era (the description)
Both are past tenses and they do different jobs. The preterite reports what happened once: ganó, flotó, se hundió, resistió. The imperfect describes the background: era, tenía, usaba, absorbía. In "ganó porque era el más estable" the win is the event and the stability is the state around it.
Choosing the wrong one changes the meaning, not just the style: "tenía dos mástiles" describes the boat, while "tuvo dos mástiles" would say it came to have them.
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