Balloon in a Bottle
What You Need
- Electric drill with 1/8-inch bit
- Clean, empty, hard-plastic 2-liter soda bottle
- Medium-sized toy balloon
What to Do
With adult supervision, drill a hole in the center of the bottom of the soda bottle. Insert the balloon into the bottle, folding the neck of the balloon over the bottle's mouth. Inflate the balloon inside the bottle by blowing into it. Immediately place your thumb over the hole in the bottom of the bottle and remove your mouth from the mouth of the bottle. Then remove your thumb from the hole.What Happens
While your thumb is over the hole in the bottom of the bottle, the balloon remains inflated inside the bottle with its mouth open. When you remove your thumb, the balloon instantly turns inside out to inflate again above the bottle.Why It Works
The hole in the bottle lets the air escape as you inflate the balloon. Placing your thumb over the hole prevents air from entering the bottle to deflate the balloon.Bizarre Facts
- If you fill the inflated balloon with water and then remove your finger from the hole in the bottom of the bottle, the increased air pressure will push the water out.
- Another variation: With adult supervision, use a funnel and wear an oven mitt to carefully pour a cup of boiling water into a clean, empty large glass narrow-necked bottle. Swirl the water inside the bottle, then pour the water out of the bottle. Immediately attach the neck of a balloon over the bottle's mouth. The air inside the bottle contracts while it cools, drawing the balloon inside, turning it inside out, and inflating it.
- Air pressure changes the boiling point of water. At sea level, the boiling point of water is 212 degrees Fahrenheit, but as the height above sea level increases, the temperature required to boil water also decreases, making it easier to bring water to a boil at high altitudes.
- Robert Boyle, the seventeenth-century Irish scientist who formulated Boyle's law regarding air pressure, referred to atoms as "corpuscles."
- Model ships in narrow-necked bottles are made by inserting the finished model into the bottle with its hinged masts and sails lying down, then pulling a thread to draw the rigging upright.
- Laidley, Australia, is home to the largest bottle in the world. Measuring 6 feet 11 inches tall and 5 feet 4-1/2 inches in circumference, the bottle holds ninety-two gallons of liquid.
Pear in a Bottle
Eau de Vie de Poire, a narrow-necked bottle of French liqueur containing a whole pear, is made by placing the bottle over the budding fruit while it is still growing on the tree, suspending the bottle in a net by tying it to a branch above, waiting for the pear to mature, and then filling the bottle with liqueur.
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