Balloon Thermal Experiment

Contributed by Yutao Zhou

Introduction

We know that balloons would pop easily, but what if I tell you I could make a balloon survive fire simply by putting some water into it?

Materials

Procedure

1. First we light a candle

2. Then we find a balloon and fill it up with water.

3. After we fill it up with water and put the balloon directly above the fire, we will see that the balloon would get toasted but it would not pop.

4. We remove the water in the balloon and blow it up to the same size with air.

5. Place the balloon above the fire again, it will pop within a second.

Physics Concepts and Questions

Why does the very same balloon pop when there isn’t water in it?

This is because the water inside the balloon absorbed the heat from the fire.

Conclusions and Further Investigations