On World Book Day we learnt about spiders and how they make webs that are super sticky, but don’t get stuck in them. We were blown away that a spiders web the width of a pen could stop a 747 airliner in mid-flight. Because we were so interested in how the spider moves in its web, we carried out an investigation.
1. We put double sided sticky tape onto a piece of cardboard.
2. Then we walked our finger nails across the sticky tape, our finger nails stuck a little.
3. Next, we put our ‘spider fingers’ on the sticky tape and we found it was more difficult to move our fingers across the tape.
4. Lastly we put ‘spider oil’ on our fingers and we found we could effortlessly slide our fingers across the sticky tape.
Unlike its’ unsuspecting prey, only the tips of a spider’s legs actually touch the web it’s made. However, moths and flies get stuck in the web because more of their body comes into contact with it.
by David, Christopher and Luke
