balloon lung experiment

7/23/2019 Balloon Lung Experiment

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Balloon Lung Experiment

This isnt the iron lung, or even a human lung, but did you know that every time you take abreath you have physics to thank for keeping you alive. Thats right! Physics is responsible forlling your lungs with air. Learn how your lungs work and make a model that is bound to amaeyour friends and leave thembreathless.

What you Need

" balloons

a clear plastic water bottle

scissors

thumbtack or nail

What to Do


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#. Take one of the balloons and cut o$ the bottom part, leaving you with only the toppart that may resemble a very small swim cap.

". %sing the thumbtack or nail, poke a hole in the bottom. The hole doesnt need to betoo large, about " &' mm.

'. (over the bottom of the water bottle and the hole that you )ust poked with the balloonyou cut in step #.

*. Take the other balloon and put it inside the bottle. Then fold the bottom of the balloonaround the rim of the bottle so the balloon hangs from the top.


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+. Pull on the bottom balloon membrane and watch what happens to the balloon insidethe bottle.

. Let go of the balloon membrane and observe what happens to the balloon inside the

bottle.

-ou should see the balloon inate as you pull out on the membrane and deate as you let go ofthe membrane. /hat causes this0 1s there a ghost blowing into the balloon0 2ope! 1ts )ustphysics!

Whats Going On?

3id you know that right now you have #*.4 pounds pushing against every s5uare inch of yourbody! That would be like having every s5uare inch of your body sandwiched between a pair ofnewborn twins! Thats right, in our atmosphere there is pressurewhichis an e$ect that occurs

when a force is applied on a surface. 6o why dont you feel like you are 7under pressure8 all thetime0 /hen the inside of you is pushing out as hard as the outside is pushing in, the forcesbalance and you feel nothing. 9ut what happens if one side stops pushing as hard0 Turns out thatis how we can breath!

:ir pressure comes from teeny&tiny gas particles that are oating around, bumping into eachother and bumping into you. The particles will take up whatever space is available to them, untilthey run into an ob)ect or a wall. 1nside the plastic water bottle there are a bunch of gas particlesbouncing o$ the walls of the bottle and lling up the space. /hen you pull down on the balloonmembrane, you make the space inside the bottle larger, which gives the particles more room to


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move around. 1f the particles have more room to move around, they wont e;ert as muchpressure on the walls< they wont bump into things as often. /hen you increase thevolume=the amount of room> you decrease the pressureinside that space, this law of physicsis called 9oyles Law.

:s the bottom balloon is pulled down, the volume increases and the pressure decreases. 9ut, thepressures on the inside and outside of the bottle must balance. The only way to keep the

pressure inside the bottle the same as the pressure outside of the bottle is to decrease thevolume again. The only thing that can move to do that is the balloon on top, so it e;pands.

This is how are lungs operate. 1nside our bodies, at the base of our lungs there is a membranecalled the diaphragm. /hen you inhale, your diaphragm contracts and attens out, increasingthe volume and decreasing the pressure in your chest. 9ecause you have more room air getssucked in through your mouth and nose and into your lungs, )ust like it did in the balloon, andthen your lungs ll with air. -our lungs are like the balloon and the diaphragm is like the balloonmembrane at the base of you bottle. /hen you e;hale your diaphragm rela;es which decreasesthe volume of your lungs and increases the pressure in your chest. To make sure that your chestdoesnt e;plode, the air gets forced back out through your mouth and nose.

balloon lung experiment

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