If this question was bugging you for a long time you have come to the right place. Glue is a liquid and water is a liquid too so the question is very interesting like will a liquid float or sink in another liquid. Normally White glue will sink in water. There are many types of glue and liquid. Let’s find out which type of glue will float or sink in which type of liquid.
Table of Contents
What is glue?
Glue is a kind of liuqid adhesive which will bind the materials together when it dries off. Polyvinyl acetate is the chemical name of widely used white glue or school glue. It is used in book bindings and handicrafts.
Definition of float and sink
A material will float or sink based on the difference between density of the material and the liquid. If the material’s density is less than the liquid’s density the material will float and if the material’s density is more than the liquid’s density the material will sink.
How glues are made and what are the types of glues?
Organic glues are made of collagen, vegetable starch. Synthetic glues are generally
made from polyvinyl acetate. There are different kinds of glues. We discussed the
white glue above. Now we will discuss the other types.
Wood glue
Wood glue is mostly used by carpenters to bind woods to make furniture. Normally wood glue is yellow and stronger than traditional white glue.
Fabric glue
Fabric glue is used to attach fabrics without sewing. There are two kinds of fabric glue. Temporary and permanent one.
Super glue
Super glues’ chemical name is cyanoacrylate. It is the strongest and fast bonding glue. It can bind almost any material like stone, metal, wood, plastic, glass, ceramic, paper and other household items.
Hot glue
Hot glues are made from thermoplastics. It is found in different sized sticks and can only be used with a hot glue gun.
Glue float or sink in different medium
Does glue float or sink in water?
The density of normal temperature water is universal which is 1 kg/L and the density of white glue is 1.07 kg/L. White glues density is higher than water so white glue will sink in water. Super glue will react immediately with water and will turn into a solid shape which is denser than water so super glue will also sink in water. The only glue which will float on water is hot glue because water is denser than hot glue.
Does glue float or sink in vegetable oil?
The density of vegetable oil is 0.92 kg/L and the density of white glue is 1.07 kg/L. Again white glues density is higher than vegetable oil so white glue will sink in water. Super glue will turn into a less dense solid because vegetable oil prevents super glue from bonding but still super glue will sink in water. Vegetable oil helps to remove super glue on any surface. Hot glue is lighter than vegetable oil so hot glue will float on vegetable oil.
Does glue float or sink in honey?
The density of honey is 1.42 kg/L which is way higher than white glue. So white glue, super glue, hot glue and every kind of glue will float on honey.
Does glue float or sink in glycerol?
Glycerols density is 1.26 kg/l which is greater than white glues density. So white glue will float on water. Again super glue will turn into a solid shape but it’s lighter than glycerol so it will float. Hot glue is the lightest glue among glues so hot glue will definitely float on glycerol.
Is there a glue that works underwater?
Yes. There are some glues that work underwater and are water resistant. White glue, Wood glue, super glue, doesn’t work underwater. Surgical glue is waterproof but we have to make sure it remains dry when we use it.Hot glue is water resistant to some extent but we can’t use hot glue underwater. Permanent fabric glue is highly water resistant. We can only use polyurethane glues underwater. Gorilla glue is 100% water proof which is a kind of polyurethane glue.
What happens when we put glues and water together
We have been discussing if glues will float or sink in water but some glues will react with water. Water is necessary to make water based glues. White glue and wood glue will lose density if we mix water with them. Hot glue won’t react with water because it’s thermoplastic. If we put super glue on water the reaction will be interesting. The super glue contains cyanoacrylate monomers. If we put super glue on water it will trigger a polymerization reaction so the super glue will dry instantly and it will turn into a solid shape from liquid shape.