Science Fun
Water Balloon Physics Force And Motion Science Experiment
In this fun and easy science experiment, we’re going to explore and investigate force and motion by tossing water balloons.
- Water filled balloons
Instructions:
- Stand facing each other from a few feet away and toss the water filled balloon to your friend.
- Once your friend catches the balloon, take one step backwards.
- As you get further away from one another, take note of how you have to give with your hands to keep the water balloon from bursting.
- Observe what causes the water balloon to eventually burst.
EXPLORE AWESOME SCIENCE EXPERIMENT VIDEOS!
How it Works:
When you lift the balloon to toss it, you give it potential energy. This potential energy become kinetic energy once the balloon is tossed. Eventually the kinetic energy can not be contained by the balloon and the balloon will pop.
Make This A Science Project:
Try different sized balloons. Try different temperatures of water in the balloons.
EXPLORE TONS OF FUN AND EASY SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS!
SUBSCRIBE AND NEVER MISS A NEW SCIENCE FUN VIDEO!
previous experiment
Next experiment.
- Grades 6-12
- School Leaders
Free printable to elevate your AI game 🤖
20 Balloon Experiments to Make Your Lessons Really Pop
See what we did there?
There’s something about the sight of colorful balloons that just makes you feel a little excited, don’t you think? That’s why kids will go crazy for these balloon experiments, whether they’re building a balloon-powered boat or powering a light bulb with static electricity. Plus, balloons are inexpensive, so stock up at the dollar store and get ready to throw a science party!
1. Blow up a balloon … without blowing
This is one of those classic balloon experiments everyone remembers doing in school. Kids learn about chemical reactions by mixing acids and bases. They’re always amazed at the results!
Learn more: Balloon Baking Soda Experiment
2. Design a balloon-powered car
Explore the laws of motion and encourage creativity when you challenge students to design, build, and test their own balloon-powered cars. Bonus: Use only recycled materials to make this project green! ( Find more cool car activities for the classroom here. )
Learn more: Balloon-Powered Car Challenge
3. Skewer a balloon without popping it
If you do this one right, you’ll make kids’ eyes pop—but not the balloon! They’ll learn about the polymers that make balloons possible, and even a little bit about how to stay cool under pressure.
Learn more: Balloon Skewer
4. Float a balloon-powered boat
Discover the power of air pressure and the third law of motion with this fun and inexpensive balloon experiment. Take this one outside on a sunny day and let kids splash away while they learn!
Learn more: Balloon-Powered Sponge Boat
5. Create ice crystal explosions
Fill balloons with water and leave them to freeze overnight. The next day, carefully cut open the balloons to reveal the beauty inside. Kids learn about crystallization and the expansion of water as it freezes. ( Get more science experiments involving ice and snow here. )
Learn more: Super Cool Melting Ice Experiment
6. Explore the science of swim bladders
Just how do fish manage to float without sinking or rising? Find out when you explore buoyancy with this swim bladder experiment using a glass bottle, balloon, and a few other basic materials.
Learn more: How Fish Sink and Float
7. Assemble a heart pump model
Anatomy lessons literally come alive when you do balloon experiments like this one. This working heart model demonstrates how blood pumps through the valves and chambers.
Learn more: DIY Heart Pump
8. Learn how lungs work
Your students might be surprised to learn that lungs have no muscles to make them work. Instead, the contraction of the diaphragm pulls air in and forces it out. This clever model helps explain the process.
Learn more: Lung Science Experiment
9. Blast off with a two-stage rocket
The rockets used for space flight generally have more than one stage to give them the extra boost they need. This experiment uses balloons to model a two-stage rocket launch, teaching kids about the laws of motion.
Learn more: Two-Stage Balloon Rocket
10. Build a hovercraft
It’s not exactly the same model the military uses, but this simple hovercraft is a lot easier to build. An old CD and a balloon help demonstrate air pressure and friction in this simple experiment.
Learn more: DIY Hovercraft
11. Parachute a water balloon
Water balloon experiments make a big splash with kids! In this one, they’ll explore how air resistance slows a water balloon’s landing using a homemade parachute.
Learn more: Water Balloon Skydiving
12. Sink or swim with water balloons
Fill water balloons with a variety of different liquids like oil, salt water, and corn syrup, then float them in a bucket of water to learn about density and buoyancy.
Learn more: Water Balloon Experiment
13. Perform the two balloons experiment
You have two balloons, one filled with more air than the other. When you open the valve between them, what will happen? The answer is almost certain to surprise you. Learn how it works in the video at the link below.
Learn more: Air Pressure Experiment
14. Power a light bulb with static electricity
One of the first balloon experiments most kids try is rubbing a balloon on their hair to make their hair stand on end. The next step is to hold the balloon over a compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL) to see it glow from the static electricity. Wow!
Learn more: Magic Light Bulb Balloon Science Experiment
15. Spin a penny round and round
In this simple experiment, students use kinetic energy and centripetal force to spin a penny inside a balloon. They’ll want to try other objects too, so hold a contest to see which spins the longest.
Learn more: The Spinning Penny
16. Fire up an air cannon
Discover the power of an air vortex with this easy DIY air cannon. To really understand how it works, use some incense to create visible smoke rings that will really impress your students.
Learn more: Air Cannon Smoke Ring
17. Create a working water fountain
See the power of air pressure when you build a balloon-activated water fountain. You’ll only need simple supplies like a plastic bottle, straw, and putty.
Learn more: Water Bottle Fountain
18. Explore the effects of hot and cold air
The concept of expansion and contraction of air can be hard to visualize. That’s where this experiment comes in to save the day. Watch the balloon expand and contract as the air around it changes temperature.
Learn more: Exploring the Effects of Hot and Cold Air
19. Fireproof a balloon
A balloon will obviously pop when touched to a hot flame, right? Not if you put some cold water in it first! Kids will be so amazed they won’t even realize they’re learning about the heat conductivity of water.
Learn more: Fireproof balloon
20. Experiment with balloons and pushpins
A pin pops a balloon in no time flat, so what happens when you place a balloon on a table full of them? Once again, the answer won’t be quite what your students expect until you explain the science of distributed pressure.
Learn more: Pinning a Balloon
Have more balloon experiments to add to the list? Come and share in our We Are Teachers HELPLINE group on Facebook.
Plus, check out our big list of easy science experiments .
You Might Also Like
50 of the Coolest Winter Science Experiments and Activities
The weather outside may be frightful, but these projects are so delightful. Continue Reading
Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved. 5335 Gate Parkway, Jacksonville, FL 32256
Princeton University
Water-balloon physics is high-impact science.
By Scott Lyon
March 19, 2020
The impact of water balloons, shot through an air cannon at a wall and captured through high-speed photography, revealed a new physics for a broad range of engineering problems, from understanding blood cells to fighting fires. Images courtesy of the researchers
Water balloons may seem like a trivial matter. A toy for mischievous kids in summer. But for scientists, the behavior of balls of liquid wrapped in a thin elastic membrane is critical to everything from understanding blood cells to fighting fires.
Using custom-made air cannons and high-speed photography, Princeton researchers have established the definitive physical rules governing capsule impact, a research area that had gone virtually unexplored until now. The results , published March 16 in Nature Physics, reveal a surprising relationship between the behavior of capsules and water droplets. Where capsules are held together by the tension of a membrane, water droplets are held together by a force called surface tension. The researchers used that connection to adapt the well understood mathematics describing water droplets to engineering problems related to capsules.
“The most surprising thing is that the impact looks a lot like that of a drop,” said Etienne Jambon-Puillet, a postdoctoral researcher and the study’s first author. “Most people who study capsules resort to complex numerical simulations to model their deformation, where here we have derived a simple model, something that is easy to understand.”
During his Ph.D. research at Sorbonne University, Jambon-Puillet was studying the behavior of water droplets covered with small beads. Searching for a simpler way to understand the complicated problem before him, he looked to the literature to find a model for how elastic capsules work. But he came up empty. Perplexed and intrigued, he was forced to set the capsules question aside for a few years and move on to other problems.
When he joined Pierre-Thomas Brun’s Liquids and Elasticity Laboratory at Princeton, he saw the perfect opportunity to turn back to that question from his graduate school work. When a water balloon strikes a surface, what happens to the elastic shell?
“The study really makes sense in the broader context of fluid mechanics,” said Brun , an assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering and the paper’s senior author. “People for decades have been wracking their brains studying drop impact, and somehow Etienne found that there was this little puzzle that was completely untouched.”
To control the experiment’s parameters, the team custom-made elastic capsules about the size of a gumball. They then filled those to exact capacity – without stretching them – and smashed the balloons against a wall at around 100 miles per hour using a small air cannon. With the camera rolling at 20,000 frames per second, the researchers were able to take fine measurements of the thin shell as it made impact. They repeated the experiment with two different kinds of liquids, glycerol and honey, to see how the dynamics changed with greater viscosity. Again, the analogy to liquid drops held.
The team then turned to commercial water balloons to see what happens when an elastic shell is stretched with fluid, the way we typically think of filling balloons with water. Not so full you can’t throw it, but full enough to burst on impact, soaking an unsuspecting friend. (Whether that friend remains friendly is another story). It turns out there is a critical value at which a balloon traveling at a given speed must be stretched for it to burst. Anyone who’s ever thrown a dud, watching it bounce off a would-be victim and roll sadly away, knows the importance of this critical value. You either needed to fill it more or throw it harder.
Much like the rest of us, when it comes to water balloons and their ilk, engineers have been flying blind, according to Brun. Those critical values had never been formalized.
A range of technologies rely on similar fluid-filled capsules, and as bioengineering efforts become ever more sophisticated, that number of technologies is certain to grow. The stomach, the bladder, the lungs, blood cells – many organs and essential biological functions rely on such thin, expandable fluid-filled chambers.
Brun and his team have given researchers a mathematical framework to understand how these objects deform with impact. And for the engineers working on these problems, the best part is that the framework is already familiar. It was just hiding in plain sight.
“The model is fairly simple,” Brun said. “But that’s what’s beautiful about it.”
In addition to Brun and Jambon-Puillet, Trevor J. Jones, a graduate student in chemical and biological engineering, contributed to the experiment. The research was funded in part by a grant from the Princeton Center for Complex Materials (NSF MRSEC).
Related News
Cuts in air pollution increased pollution at ground level
Dean encourages incoming students to seize opportunities and form strong bonds at Princeton
Margaret Martonosi on the National Science Foundation and the value of public service
Faculty commended for outstanding teaching
Can ‘forever’ chemicals become less so? This senior thesis works toward smarter cleanup of PFAS.
Class Day marks achievement, determination and optimism
Pierre-Thomas Brun
Related departments and centers.
Chemical and Biological Engineering
Princeton Materials Institute
Top 20 Fun Balloon Science Experiments
Get ready to embark on a thrilling journey as we explore the fascinating science behind balloons.
Our round-up of the top 20 balloon-based science experiments is designed to elevate the curiosity of kids of all ages! These hands-on, educational activities will not only enhance your grasp of science basics but also ignite a passion for exploration and discovery.
1. Pop a Balloon Using an Orange Peel
By carefully peeling an orange and using the peel to pop a balloon, students will explore the intriguing world of chemical reactions and pressure.
2. The Magnifying Glass Balloon Pop Experiment
By using a magnifying glass to focus the sun’s rays onto a black balloon contained within another balloon, students can witness the remarkable phenomenon of the balloon popping due to the concentrated heat.
3. Balloon Powered Sponge Boat
Prepare to set sail on a fascinating nautical adventure with the “Balloon Powered Sponge Boat” experiment! This engaging hands-on activity offers students a unique opportunity to explore the principles of buoyancy, propulsion, and energy conversion.
Learn more: Balloon-Powered Sponge Boat
3. Balloon Skewer
The “Balloon Skewer” experiment is a fantastic way to spark curiosity, challenge conventional wisdom, and foster a deeper understanding of the science behind everyday materials.
4. Balloon Powered Car
This exciting hands-on activity allows students to explore the principles of motion, force, and energy conversion in a fun and interactive way.
5. Learn about Swim Bladders
In this captivating hands-on activity, students will explore how fish control their position in the water column by creating their own swim bladders using balloons.
Learn more: Science Buddies
6. Boyle’s Law Experiment
By inflating a balloon and adjusting its size using a syringe, students can observe firsthand how changes in volume affect the pressure inside the balloon.
Through this experiment, students will gain a deeper understanding of Boyle’s Law and the fundamental concepts of gas behavior.
7. Balloon Rocket Science
Engaging in the “Balloon Rocket Science” experiment not only sparks curiosity and excitement but also provides a practical application of scientific principles.
Learn more: Balloon Rocket Science for Kids
8. How many Pins to Pop a Balloon?
This captivating experiment offers students a thrilling opportunity to explore the concept of structural integrity and the delicate balance between pressure and resistance.
9. DIY Lung Model
This experiment not only provides a fun and interactive way to learn about the anatomy and function of the respiratory system but also encourages students to explore the concepts of inhalation, exhalation, and gas exchange.
10. Water Fountain Balloon
Get ready to witness a mesmerizing water and air pressure display with the “Water Fountain Balloon” experiment! In this captivating hands-on activity, students will create their miniature water fountain using a balloon and a water bottle.
11. DIY Water Balloon Parachute
Get ready to launch into the world of aerodynamics and gravity with the “DIY Water Balloon Parachute” experiment! This thrilling hands-on activity allows students to design and create their own parachutes using water balloons and various materials.
12. Hot and Cold Balloon Experiment
Through this experiment, students will gain a deeper understanding of how temperature affects the volume and pressure of gases.
Learn more: Hot and Cold Balloon Experiment
13. Deflated Balloon Experiment
Engaging in the “Deflated Balloon” experiment not only fosters a sense of curiosity and wonder but also provides a practical demonstration of scientific principles.
14. Create a Heart Pump Model
This hands-on activity offers students a captivating opportunity to create a model of a working heart pump using balloons.
Learn more: DIY Heart Pump
15. DIY Hovercraft
Get ready to defy gravity and glide on a cushion of air with the “DIY Hovercraft” experiment! This exciting hands-on activity offers students an opportunity to create their very own hovercraft using simple materials.
Learn more: DIY Hovercraft
16. Inflate a Balloon
By combining vinegar and baking soda inside a balloon, students will witness a remarkable reaction that results in the inflation of the balloon.
Learn more: Happy Brown House
17. Sink or Float
By placing these filled balloons into a bucket of water, students can observe and analyze the different behaviors of the balloons—whether they sink or float.
Learn more: 123Homeschool4me
18. Magic Light Bulb
Prepare to witness a truly magical and illuminating experience with the “Magic Light Bulb Balloon Science Experiment”! In this enchanting hands-on activity, students will discover the mesmerizing properties of static electricity and light as they create their very own “magic” light bulb using a balloon.
19. Make a Vortex Cannon
By repurposing a plastic container, such as a large bottle or a trash can, and creating a small opening, students can generate a powerful ring of air known as a vortex.
20. Fireproof Balloon
Experience the astonishing magic of fire resistance with the “Fireproof Balloon” experiment! In this captivating hands-on activity, students will witness the incredible properties of a specially treated balloon that can withstand the heat of an open flame without bursting into flames.
Similar Posts:
- 68 Best Chemistry Experiments: Learn About Chemical Reactions
- Top 100 Fine Motor Skills Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers
- Top 58 Creative Art Activities for Kids and Preschoolers
Leave a Comment Cancel reply
Save my name and email in this browser for the next time I comment.
May 22, 2014
You Make It Happen with Ken Finn
A sporty exploration of energy
By Exploratorium
Key Concepts Physics Deflection Potential Energy Kinetic Energy Introduction Have you ever wondered about the secret behind a ball's bounce? Observing these bounces, however, can be difficult! A bounce often happens too quickly to see precisely what is occurring as the ball hits and deflects off a surface. In this experiment you're going to see how a ball bounces by watching in slow-motion—in real time! Background This experiment is all about two forms of energy: potential and kinetic. If something has potential energy, it has energy that's stored. When you lift an object—a water balloon, for example—against the force of gravity that object now has the potential energy equal to the work done to elevate it. When you drop that same object, that potential energy becomes kinetic. Kinetic energy is the energy of motion: the motion of a water balloon falling, of rubber stretching or of rubber springing back to its original shape. Bouncing is an exercise in energy changing forms from potential to kinetic and back to potential. You're going to see how a ball bounces by watching it in slow motion. That slow bouncing ball is going to be a superstrong water balloon. Materials
At least four round balloons (suitable for filling with water)
Cooking oil (You only need a little to make superstrong water balloons.)
Water (to fill a water balloon)
A smooth outdoor surface that can get wet (such as a sidewalk or driveway)
Optional: video camera or video-capable device and a helper
Preparation
On supporting science journalism
If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing . By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
Apply the cooking oil to the outside of one round balloon. Why do you think this is important?
Insert this greased balloon inside a second round balloon.
Fill the inner balloon with water and then knot both balloons.
Prepare additional "superstrong" water balloons for the activity now, if you like, in case the first one breaks.
Procedure
Prepare to drop your superstrong water balloon onto a smooth surface by lifting it up and holding it out above the surface. What do you expect to see when the balloon is falling? What about when it hits the surface?
Be prepared to keep a close eye on what happens and then drop the water balloon. What did you notice when the ball fell? What happened when it hit the surface? What happened after it hit the surface?
Repeat the activity a few more times and look closely at the bottom of the water balloon as it makes contact with the surface—and when it bounces back up again. Why do you think this is happening?
Extra: If you want an even more detailed view into the dynamics of the bounce, have a helper use a video camera or smartphone to capture the balloon's bounce at surface level. (This might require bending way down!) You can even play that video back in even slower motion to study the movement. Did you notice anything different in the video that you had missed before?
[break] Observations and results Did the water balloon maintain its round shape as it was falling but then squash when it hit the ground? Did it then spring back into a round shape as it lifted back up off the surface? When you lift up your water balloon, you are giving it potential energy—"potential" refers to something that could happen. (You have the potential to become a physicist, for example.) If something has potential energy, it has energy that's stored up. When you drop your water balloon, that potential energy becomes kinetic. Kinetic energy is the energy of motion. (A car moving at 100 kilometers per hour has a lot of kinetic energy.) When the balloon hits the floor and stops, that kinetic energy has to go somewhere. The kinetic energy goes into squashing the balloon flat. When the balloon squashes, the rubber stretches—and stretched-out rubber wants to snap back to its original shape (think: a stretched rubber band). When the balloon’s stretched rubber snaps back, it pushes against the floor and the floor pushes back. As a result, the balloon goes bouncing back up in the air. More to Explore Gaining Height , from Exploratorium Bouncing Balls , from Exploratorium That's the Way the Ball Bounces , from Exploratorium Follow the Bouncing Ball , from Exploratorium
This activity brought to you in partnership with Exploratorium
Chemical and Biological Engineering
Water-balloon physics is high-impact science.
Using water balloons, an air cannon and high-speed photography, Princeton researchers established a new framework for understanding the physics of capsule impact, borrowing on familiar work from a related field. Image courtesy of the researchers
Water balloons may seem like a trivial matter. A toy for mischievous kids in summer. But for scientists, the behavior of balls of liquid wrapped in a thin elastic membrane is critical to everything from understanding blood cells to fighting fires.
Using custom-made air cannons and high-speed photography, Princeton researchers have established the definitive physical rules governing capsule impact, a research area that had gone virtually unexplored until now. The results , published March 16 in Nature Physics, reveal a surprising relationship between the behavior of capsules and water droplets. Where capsules are held together by the tension of a membrane, water droplets are held together by a force called surface tension. The researchers used that connection to adapt the well understood mathematics describing water droplets to engineering problems related to capsules.
"The most surprising thing is that the impact looks a lot like that of a drop," said Etienne Jambon-Puillet, a postdoctoral researcher and the study's first author. "Most people who study capsules resort to complex numerical simulations to model their deformation, where here we have derived a simple model, something that is easy to understand."
During his Ph.D. research at Sorbonne University, Jambon-Puillet was studying the behavior of water droplets covered with small beads. Searching for a simpler way to understand the complicated problem before him, he looked to the literature to find a model for how elastic capsules work. But he came up empty. Perplexed and intrigued, he was forced to set the capsules question aside for a few years and move on to other problems.
When he joined Pierre-Thomas Brun's Liquids and Elasticity Laboratory at Princeton, he saw the perfect opportunity to turn back to that question from his graduate school work. When a water balloon strikes a surface, what happens to the elastic shell?
"The study really makes sense in the broader context of fluid mechanics," said Brun , an assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering and the paper's senior author. "People for decades have been wracking their brains studying drop impact, and somehow Etienne found that there was this little puzzle that was completely untouched."
To control the experiment’s parameters, the team custom-made elastic capsules about the size of a gumball. They then filled those to exact capacity — without stretching them — and smashed the balloons against a wall at around 100 miles per hour using a small air cannon. With the camera rolling at 20,000 frames per second, the researchers were able to take fine measurements of the thin shell as it made impact. They repeated the experiment with two different kinds of liquids, glycerol and honey, to see how the dynamics changed with greater viscosity. Again, the analogy to liquid drops held.
The team then turned to commercial water balloons to see what happens when an elastic shell is stretched with fluid, the way we typically think of filling balloons with water. Not so full you can't throw it, but full enough to burst on impact, soaking an unsuspecting friend. (Whether that friend remains friendly is another story). It turns out there is a critical value at which a balloon traveling at a given speed must be stretched for it to burst. Anyone who's ever thrown a dud, watching it bounce off a would-be victim and roll sadly away, knows the importance of this critical value. You either needed to fill it more or throw it harder.
Much like the rest of us, when it comes to water balloons and their ilk, engineers have been flying blind, according to Brun. Those critical values had never been formalized.
A range of technologies rely on similar fluid-filled capsules, and as bioengineering efforts become ever more sophisticated, that number of technologies is certain to grow. The stomach, the bladder, the lungs, blood cells — many organs and essential biological functions rely on such thin, expandable fluid-filled chambers.
Brun and his team have given researchers a mathematical framework to understand how these objects deform with impact. And for the engineers working on these problems, the best part is that the framework is already familiar. It was just hiding in plain sight.
"The model is fairly simple," Brun said. "But that's what's beautiful about it."
In addition to Brun and Jambon-Puillet, Trevor J. Jones, a graduate student in chemical and biological engineering, contributed to the experiment. The research was funded in part by a grant from the Princeton Center for Complex Materials (NSF MRSEC).
- Skip to global NPS navigation
- Skip to the main content
- Skip to the footer section
Exiting nps.gov
Rate the lesson plan, lesson plan, h2oh no – a water balloon lesson.
Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park
Projectiles come in all shapes and sizes. Projectiles are objects with an initial velocity that are only affected by gravity after initial velocity has been obtained. You see projectiles every day – in sports and even dropped from birds. In this lab, you will analyze the physical properties of a water balloon in flight, aka a projectile, over multiple trials.
Looking to improve their artillery, the U.S. Army sent the Major Ringgold to France and England to study their technology. Upon his return, this soldier/innovator redesigned both U.S. field artillery and methods for firing the new cannon. His creation, “Flying Artillery,” was an extremely lightweight cannon that could be quickly moved around the battlefield.
Ringgold, determined his invention would work, drilled his cannoneers. The practice paid off. During the Battle of Palo Alto, Ringgold’s Flying Artillery flew across the battlefield and successfully defended many Mexican attacks.
In contrast, Mexican field artillery was older and heavier their U.S. counterparts. Many pieces were leftover from the Spanish occupation of Mexico. Furthermore, their weight made them slower on the battlefield. Poor black powder rendered these cannon even more ineffective as they had a shorter firing range than the U.S. artillery.
Preparation
- Review the activity.
- Print the student worksheets. Print one for each student or each group of 4-5.
- This is an outdoor activity. Find a spot big enough for a group of 4-6 students to stand across from each other as shown in Diagram #1.
- Students need to fill up water balloons. Determine if this will be done outside or inside.
- 3 Meter sticks marked with colored tape at every decimeter mark
- 1 Camera (cell phone cameras are OK)
- 1 Meter of colored tape
- 1 Protractor or protractor app
Use for recording measurements, calculating data, and student assessment.
Download Water Balloon Projectile Lab
Use the answers to the calculations and post-lab questions to assess student learning.
Download Water Balloon Answer Key
Lesson Hook/Preview
Projectiles have been used in combat since the first time a person threw a rock at someone else. During the U.S.-Mexican War, soldiers used projectiles - musket balls and cannon balls.
In this lab, you will analyze the physical properties of a water balloon in flight over multiple trials.
- Have students get into groups of 4-5.
- Give each group:
- Lab worksheet
- One 3-meter stick
- Video camera or device with a video camera
- Tell students to fill the balloons with water until they are about the size of a fist.
- Take students outside.
- Put two meter sticks parallel to the ground. Put the other meter stick perpendicular to the ground.
- Tell students to get in the formation shown in Diagram #1.
- The two students throwing balloons need three balloons each.
- Throw the balloons back and forth six times, catching it each time.
- Record each of the six throws as a separate recording. For each throw:
- Film the balloon.
- Catch the balloon.
- Use the meter stick to measure the range and height of the balloon.
- Record your observations on the data table.
- When finished, pick up the balloon pieces, gather equipment, and go back to the classroom.
- Analyze your observations.
- Watch the balloon’s direction of motion in the first few frames of the video.
- Create a line based on the balloon’s position.
- Use a protractor to measure the angle of the balloon relative to the meter sticks.
- Estimate the displacement on the x-axis (your meter sticks).
- Calculate an average displacement on the x-axis (Δx) and an average angle of release.
- Have students complete the lab worksheet and post-lab questions.
Projectile - An object that is affected by gravity after its initial velocity has been obtained
Contact Information
Email us about this lesson plan
Lesson Plans
Last updated: September 28, 2016
Balloon and Jar Air Pressure Experiment
by Science Explorers | Mar 29, 2021 | Blog | 0 comments
Air pressure experiments for children are a fun way to introduce kids to a new scientific concept. Kids and adults alike have a blast with this balloon and jar air pressure experiment. The experiment shows children what happens when the air pressure inside a jar changes by using just a few materials. It’s the perfect lesson for elementary school-age children with adult supervision.
Learn more about our virtual and in-person science camps!
What You’ll Need
To perform the experiment, you’ll need:
- Water balloon.
- Piece of paper.
Safety Note
This experiment uses fire. Children must be supervised and should not perform the experiment on their own.
How to Conduct the Experiment
Follow these instructions to suck a water balloon into a jar using air pressure:
- Fill the balloon: Fill the water balloon until it’s slightly wider than the neck of the jar and tie the balloon.
- Place the balloon on the jar: Place the jar on a flat surface and rest the balloon on top of the open jar.
- Demonstrate with the water balloon: Help the kids push down slightly on the balloon to show them it won’t fit inside the jar.
- Remove balloon: After demonstrating, remove the balloon from the container.
- Get your matches: Light a piece of paper with a match and drop it in the jar.
- Place the balloon again: When the fire starts to grow, place the balloon back over the mouth of the jar.
- Watch the reactions: Observe what happens to the balloon and the fire. The balloon will begin to shake, and the fire will be extinguished as the balloon is sucked into the jar. The balloon will be sucked about halfway into the container.
- Let the kids try: Once the fire has died and the jar has cooled, have the children try to remove the balloon. It will be a little challenging!
- Safely remove the balloon: To remove the water balloon from the jar, start by turning the jar sideways. Place your finger between the container and the balloon to release the suction. The balloon should come out easily after that.
Children will love doing this experiment over and over. To make this air pressure experiment even more fun for kids, let each child pick a balloon to decorate before you fill it with water. This allows children to observe any differences between how the balloons behave, such as which balloon was most difficult to remove and which one worked best.
The Science Behind the Experiment
This experiment is all about air pressure. When you first place the filled balloon atop the jar, air pressure prevents you from pushing it inside. The air trapped inside the jar has nowhere to go, since the balloon covers the opening. At this point, the air pressure within the jar is the same as the air pressure outside it, making it impossible to fit the balloon in.
But when you add the lit piece of paper to the jar, things change. The burning paper causes the air inside the jar to heat up and expand. As the fire grows, the air in the jar will start escaping around the sides of the balloon. When the balloon begins shaking that’s how you know the air is escaping.
The balloon acts as a one-way valve, allowing air within the jar to escape but preventing new air from entering. With less air in the jar, the air pressure drops. At this point, the air pressure within the jar is lower than outside it, which causes the balloon to get sucked in.
Learn About Science Summer Camps at Science Explorers
If you’re looking for more fun science activities for your child, we have the perfect programs at Science Explorers. Learn more about our virtual and in-person summer science camps and contact us for additional information.
Recent Posts
- How to Explore Science at the Playground
- Guide to Funding a School STEM Program
- 5 Earth Science Experiments: Safe, Exciting and Educational
- Beach STEM Activities
- Guide to Sports Science for Children
Recent Comments
- Demonstrations
- Home Experiments
Balloons and Static Electricity
- by Joe Crowley
- in Home Experiments
- on January 4, 2021
Contributed by Sabrina Brickner
Introduction
- How does charge work? Can we really see how electrons work without fancy science tools?
- Someone with hair on their head
- A working faucet
- An empty metal can
- Blow up a balloon.
- Rub it on your head.
- Watch what happens to the balloon and your hair.
- Turn on your sink and put the balloon close to the water without letting the balloon touch the water.
- Watch what happens to the stream of water.
- Try moving the balloon around a little bit (without touching the water) and see what happens.
- Get an empty metal can and lie it on a hard surface (like the floor or a kitchen counter) such that it can roll.
- Put the balloon close to the can without touching them together.
- Slowly move the balloon away from the can and see what happens.
Physics Concepts and Questions
How does this work?
Static electricity arises from an electrical charge imbalance. In this experiment, when we rub the balloon against our hair, we transfer negative charge to the balloon in the form of electrons. This means that the balloon is now negatively charged, and our hair is positively charged. When we put the balloon by our hair, they attract because they are oppositely charged. This same idea of opposites attracting applies to the water coming out of the faucet, and the empty metal can.
How can the water be positively charged if we haven’t done anything to it like we did in the case of rubbing the balloon on our hair which makes our hair positively charged?
When water comes out of the faucet it is neutral, meaning that it has positive and negative charges in it. However, when we bring the balloon close to the water, some of the negative charge is repelled away into other parts of the water (the top and bottom of the stream), leaving the middle of the stream of water (by the balloon) positively charged. Since this part of the water is positively charged, and the balloon is negatively charged, they attract.
What about the metal can? Can electrons really travel through metal like they travel through water?
Yes they can! The same thing happens here! Some of the positive charge in the can goes to the other side of the can, leaving the side facing the balloon positively charged. Thus the balloon and the can attract.
Conclusions and Further Investigations
- If you rub the balloon on your head 2 times, does it bend the water more, less, or about the same as rubbing the balloon on your head 10 times?
- Does the temperature of the water make a difference?
Recent Posts
- Separating Salt & Pepper with Balloons
- Clouds from bottles: a twist!
- Communicating with Light
- Crushing Soda Cans with Air Pressure
- Buoyancy with 2 Liquids
Recent Comments
- December 2021
- January 2021
- Entries feed
- Comments feed
- WordPress.org
© 2024 UCSB Physics Circus. Built using WordPress and the Highlight Theme
COMMENTS
In this fun and easy science experiment, we're going to explore and investigate force and motion by tossing water balloons. Materials: Water filled balloons Friend Instructions: Stand facing each other from a few feet away and toss the water filled balloon to your friend. Once your friend catches the balloon, take one step backwards. As you get further away from one another, take note of how ...
Happy Brown House. 14. Power a light bulb with static electricity. One of the first balloon experiments most kids try is rubbing a balloon on their hair to make their hair stand on end. The next step is to hold the balloon over a compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL) to see it glow from the static electricity.
The impact of water balloons, shot through an air cannon at a wall and captured through high-speed photography, revealed a new physics for a broad range of engineering problems, from understanding blood cells to fighting fires. Images courtesy of the researchers. Water balloons may seem like a trivial matter. A toy for mischievous kids in summer.
Pop a balloon with an orange peel! Simple Science Experiment! Watch on. By carefully peeling an orange and using the peel to pop a balloon, students will explore the intriguing world of chemical reactions and pressure. 2. The Magnifying Glass Balloon Pop Experiment. Mystery Balloon Pop - Sick Science! #190.
A bounce often happens too quickly to see precisely what is occurring as the ball hits and deflects off a surface. In this experiment you're going to see how a ball bounces by watching in slow ...
The Science of Balloons Part 1: Under Pressure. KS4 & 5 / CfE Senior: Material Properties. Experiments with balloons can help us learn about material behaviour, elasticity and viscoelasticity. In Part 1 we examine the famous Two Balloon experiment and find out why inflating a balloon is not always easy. Learning Resources Home.
Cut two pieces of string, each about 30 cm in length. Tie the end of one string to one of the balloons. Image Credit: Svenja Lohner, Science Buddies / Science Buddies. Tie the end of the other string to the second balloon. Use tape to attach the loose end of each of the strings to the underside of a door frame.
Water-balloon physics is high-impact science. Using water balloons, an air cannon and high-speed photography, Princeton researchers established a new framework for understanding the physics of capsule impact, borrowing on familiar work from a related field. Image courtesy of the researchers. Water balloons may seem like a trivial matter.
Water-balloon physics is high-impact science. Water balloons may seem like a trivial matter. A toy for mischievous kids in summer. But for scientists, the behavior of balls of liquid wrapped in a ...
3) A water balloon is thrown (or dropped from) approximately 50 feet up into the air, caught using a cradling motion, and observed not to break. The same water balloon is thrown about the same distance up into the air, allowed to hit the ground and observed to break. Students record their observations, identifying the independent variable (m, F ...
6 balloons. One 3-meter stick. Video camera or device with a video camera. Tell students to fill the balloons with water until they are about the size of a fist. Step #2. Take students outside. Put two meter sticks parallel to the ground. Put the other meter stick perpendicular to the ground.
How to Conduct the Experiment. Follow these instructions to suck a water balloon into a jar using air pressure: Fill the balloon: Fill the water balloon until it's slightly wider than the neck of the jar and tie the balloon. Place the balloon on the jar: Place the jar on a flat surface and rest the balloon on top of the open jar.
The diameter of the balloon can be approximated from the measured circumference, = The volume of the balloon can be approximated from diameter, = 6 1 ! Experiment 2 . We conducted Experiment with a 12" balloon inflated to 20 pump strokes (about 50% capacity). A convenient mass increment is about 3 g. We have used small fender washers (a thin ...
To control the experiment's parameters, the team custom-made elastic capsules about the size of a gumball. ... Water-balloon physics is high-impact science. ScienceDaily. Retrieved September 7 ...
Static electricity arises from an electrical charge imbalance. In this experiment, when we rub the balloon against our hair, we transfer negative charge to the balloon in the form of electrons. This means that the balloon is now negatively charged, and our hair is positively charged. When we put the balloon by our hair, they attract because ...
Water-balloon physics is high-impact science. Water balloons may seem like a trivial matter. A toy for mischievous kids in summer. But for scientists, the behavior of balls of liquid wrapped in a ...
The balloon rocket illustrates Newton's third law of motion. It states that for each force there is an equally strong and opposite reaction force. In this case, the air inside the rocket, through the collisions of the air molecules (air pressure), exerts a net force on the front inside wall of the balloon. The opposing force is the push back on ...
amounts water; a couple should be overfilled, a couple should be under filled, and the rest could be filled with a normal amount of water. The class is taken to an outdoor space to make observations of the following teacher demonstrations: 1) A water balloon
The Balloon and Water Experiment. Let's get to the fun part - bending water with a balloon. Here's what you'll need: A balloon; A faucet or a source of running water; STEP 1: Inflate the Balloon: Start by securely inflating and tying the balloon. The exact balloon size doesn't matter, but larger balloons may be easier to work with.
Balloons can be used in a wide range of student hands-on science projects. From powering a car or propelling a hovercraft to enabling exploration of rocket science, kids can experiment with physics, aerodynamics, and more using ordinary balloons. These Science Buddies projects, activities, and Lesson Plans use balloons:
Step-1: As a first step, blow up the balloon in the same way as you regularly do and give it a tight knot at its mouth part. Step-2: In the second step, light up the candle and place it on the experiment table. And bring the inflated balloon as closer as possible over the flame.
Water balloons may seem like a trivial matter. A toy for mischievous kids in summer. But for scientists, the behavior of balls of liquid wrapped in a thin elastic membrane is critical to everything from understanding blood cells to fighting fires. Using custom-made air cannons and high-speed photography, Princeton researchers have established th...
8 Amazing Balloon Science Experiments To Do At Home. Hope You Like This Video. If You Like This Video Please Share Your Friends.*To Get More Interesting Vide...