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| Even our "fireproof" balloons couldn't withstand the creme brulee torch. |
Inspiration
It's been a long time (sorry) so I thought I'd start with a quick and dirty event. This idea was pulled out of a great book called Totally Irresponsible Science. This demonstration is incredibly easy to set up with very little prep time.
Materials
Fire source (I used a barbecue ignitor because of the range)
Balloons (any size will work but I recommend doing various degrees of inflation some air and some water)
It's important to dry off the balloons (or to do some dry and some wet if you want to add some misdirection)
Discussion Notes
As usual we talk about what we expect might happen before trying it out. I encouraged the girls to predict not only what would happen but why. Have them make predictions about which will pop the easiest and what makes the most difference pressure and rubber thickness or the material inside the balloon. When the water balloon doesn't pop right away we discuss further about where the heat from the ignitor goes and how there's no difference in the heat produced by the fire only a difference in how it gets distributed when applied to the balloon. Afterwards Lana wanted to try what would happen if we used hot water instead of cold (and it was still resistant but slightly less so than the cold water version). One mistake I made was to neglect my safety glasses (especially important with explosions (even balloons).
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| The girls are happy to see Science Saturdays resume with explosions and a wet Daddy. |
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| The air balloons explode almost instantly when exposed to the flame. |
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| The bigger the balloon (more pressure and thinner balloon) did explode more easily than the smaller ones as expected. |
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| Small water balloon first to brave the fire. |
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| Small water balloon nearly impervious to the flame. |
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| An even bigger water balloon braves the flames. |
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| This one is even more scorched than the smaller balloon |
Some shaky video of the biggest balloons
