Joey Green's Mad Scientist

Balloon Car

What You Need

Krazy Glue
Small plastic spool
Old compact disc
Button
Medium-sized toy balloon

What to Do
Using the Krazy Glue, glue the plastic spool onto the compact disc so the hole in the spool is directly over the hole in the compact disc. Let dry. Glue a button over the top hole in the spool so the holes in the button are directly over the hole in the spool. Inflate the balloon, pinch the neck to prevent the air from escaping, and stretch the lip of the balloon over the spool. Set the compact disc on a flat tabletop and let go of the balloon.

What Happens
The compact disc floats across the table like a hovercraft.

Why It Works
An invisible cushion of air acts as a lubricant and reduces friction between the compact disc and the tabletop, the same way adding oil to a car engine prevents the parts from rubbing against each other.

Bizarre Facts

The word balloon is slang for "a hobo's bedroll."
A compact disc holds three miles of playing track and is read from the inside edge to the outside edge, the reverse of how a record works.
In 1954, English electronics engineer Christopher Cockerell designed the hovercraft by attaching two tin cans, one inside the other, to an industrial air blower mounted on a stand and blowing air through the gap between the tin cans.
The SRN-4 Mark III, the world's largest civil hovercraft, weighs 305 tons, carries more than four hundred passengers and sixty cars across the English Channel, and travels at a top speed of seventyfive miles per hour—nearly twice the speed of the fastest ocean liner.

Know-It-All
In 1899, Charles H. Duell, Commissioner of the U.S. Office of Patents, claimed: "Everything that can be invented has been invented."

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