A balloon is known to pop very easily. When you apply a little pressure on an inflated balloon, it goes pop. But this does not always happen. If you poke a balloon with a single pushpin, it pops immediately. But what if there are several pushpins instead of just one? Want to find out? Let us do this balloon and pin experiment, and learn the science behind it.
Materials required
Balloon – 2 numbers
Cardboard piece – 1 number
Pushpins – 20 numbers
Steps to follow
- Keep a single pushpin on a table. The sharp edge of the pin should be pointing upwards.
- Take one balloon, and inflate it. Press it over the inverted pushpin, applying a light force with your hands. The balloon immediately pops in your hands.
- Let us proceed to the next part of the balloon and pin experiment. Take the cardboard piece, and insert the pushpins into it. (Take proper care so that your fingers won’t get cut. If needed, take the help of an adult at home.)
- Insert the pins close to each other. There should be an equal distance, say 1 cm, between the pins.
- Keep the cardboard piece on the table in such a way that pushpins are facing upwards.
- Now inflate the next balloon, and press it over the group of pins. Apply the same force that you used with the single pin.
- What happened? Did the balloon pop immediately? No, it did not.
What we learn
The balloon snapped when pressed over a single pin. But when there were many pins, it did not burst. This happened because of the difference in pressure applied. When we use one pin, the entire pressure is applied on a small area of balloon. As balloon is elastic in nature, it stretches and pops immediately. Concentrated pressure on one point causes the pop.
When we press the balloon on many pins, the pressure does not concentrate on a single point. It is distributed or diffused over a large area. The pressure applied on any single point was not enough to pop the balloon.
If you found this interesting, go to our Experiments section, to find more of them.
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