Take your science projects to the next level with this in-depth look at Air Pressure.
There's air surrounding us everywhere, all at the same pressure of 14.7 psi (pounds per square inch). It's the same force you feel on your skin whether you're on the ceiling or the floor, under the bed or in the shower.
An interesting thing happens when you change a pocket of air pressure – things start to move. This difference in pressure that causes movement is what creates winds, tornadoes, airplanes to fly, and some of the experiments we're about to do right now.
An important thing to remember is that higher pressure always pushes things around. (Meaning lower pressure does not "pull", but rather that we think of higher pressure as a "push".)
Another interesting phenomenon occurs with fast-moving air particles. When air moves fast, it does not have time to push on a nearby surface, like an airplane wing. It just zooms by, barely having time to touch the surface. The air particles are really in a rush.
Think of really busy people driving fast in their cars. They are so busy doing other things and driving fast to get somewhere because they do not have time to just sit and relax.
Air pressure works the same way. When the air zooms by a surface (like an airplane wing) like fast cars, the fast air has no time to push on the surface and just sit there, so not as much air weight gets put on the surface.
Less weight means less force on the area. (Think of "pressure" as force on a given area or surface.)
This causes a less (or lower) pressure region where there is faster air movement.
Confused? Great! Let's try some experiences out to straighten out these concepts so they make sense to you.
Okay, let's begin.
Air Takes Space
In a big bowl (or sink or tub) full of water, lower a clear cup, mouth downwards, into the water. Let some of the air escape slowly into a second submerged cup (as if you were "pouring the air up"). Remove one cup and realign the other mouth-downward, and using a flexible straw, blow into the mouth of the downward-facing cup.
Magic Water Glass Trick
Fill a glass two-thirds with water. Cover the mouth with an index card and invert (holding the card in place) over a sink. Remove your hand from the card. Voila! The card stays in place because air is heavier than water, and the card experiences about 15 pounds of force pushing up by the air and only about one pound of force pushing down from the water … where the card places in place.
(Try this with two glasses stacked mouth-to-mouth with the index card sandwiches in the middle. Remove the card …)
Plumber Magic
Take two clean old-fashioned, red rubber-and-wood-stick plungers and stick them together (you may need to wet the rims first). Try to separate them. Why is it so hard? When you rammed them together, air was forced out of the cavity that the insides make when pushed together, leaving you with a lower air pressure pocket inside, compared to the surrounding air pressure of 14.7 pounds per square inch (psi) outside the plungers. Higher pressure always pushes and thus is keeping the plungers together.
Magic Egg Trick
Remove the shell from a hard-boiled egg and use a bottle with a neck large enough that the egg can be squeezed through (without squashing it) – old fashioned milk bottles work great. Light a match and toss it in, quickly setting the egg (small-end down) on the mouth of the bottle. The air inside gets used up by the flame, lowering the air pressure inside the bottle. The higher pressure, now outside the bottle, pushes on the egg and pops it in. (To remove the egg, turn the bottle upside down and get the egg to be small-end down inside the bottle near the mouth.) Blow hard into the mouth of the bottle.)
Barometer
Fill a cup two-thirds full of water. Cut the neck off a balloon and stretch over the mouth of the cup, fitting it tightly (like a drum). Tape a straw to the top, making one straw end one-third from the drumhead edge, and the free end hanging off. Place next to a wall covered with paper and mark the free end position. Over the next month, you can track pressure changes amplified by the straw.
Burping Bottle
Tape a lightweight plastic funnel tightly to the top of a strong straw, inserting the other end of the straw into a hole drilled into the top of a water bottle. Use hot glue to seal up any holes. Pour water into the funnel and watch it burp regularly.
Fountain Bottle
Seal a 2-liter soda water bottle (half-full of water) with a lump of clay wrapped around a long straw, sealing the straw to the mouth of the bottle. Blow hard into the straw. As you blow air into the bottle, the air pressure increases. This higher pressure pushes on the water, which gets forced up and out the straw.
Ping Pong Funnel
Insert a ping pong ball into a funnel and blow hard. (You can tilt your head back so that the ball end points to the ceiling. Can you blow hard enough so when you invert the funnel, the ball stops inside? Can you pick up a ball from the table? , The air where the ball sits in the funnel moves faster and generates lower air pressure than the rest of the air surrounding the ball.
This means that the pressure under the ball is lower than the surrounding air which is, by comparison, a higher pressure. This higher pressure pushes the ball back into the funnel … no matter how hard you blow or which way you hold the funnel.
Squished Soda Can
Heat an empty soda can (large beer cans actually will work better if you have one) in a skillet with a few tablespoons of water in the can over a hot stove. Have a shower dish with about inch inch of ice water handy (enough water to make a seal with the top of the can). When the can emits steam, grab the can with tongs and quickly invert it into the dish. CRACK! The air in the can was heated, and things that are hot tend to expand. When you cool it quickly by taking it off the stove onto a cold plate, the air cools down and shrinks, creating a lower pressure inside. Since the surrounding air outside of the can is now higher, it pushes on all sides of the can and crushes it.
Squished Balloon
Blow a balloon up so that it is just a bit larger than the opening of a large jam jar and can not be easily shoved in. Light a small wad of paper towel on fire and drop it into the jar. Place the balloon on top. When the fire goes out, lift the balloon … and the jar goes with it! The air gets used up by the flame and lower the air pressure inside the jar. The surrounding air outside, now at a higher pressure than inside the jar, pushes the balloon into the jam jar.
The Million Dollar Bet
Take an empty water or soda bottle and lay it down horizontally on a table. Carefully set a small wadded up ball of paper towel in the mouth of the bottle. (The ball should be about half the size of the opening.) I bet you a million dollars that you can not blow hard and get the paper to go into the bottle!
You're trying to force more air into the bottle, but there's no room for the air already inside to go except back out the mouth of the bottle, taking the paper ball with it.
Ping Pong Jump Cups
Place a ping pong ball in a cup just barely bigger than the ping pong ball. Blow down on the ball and the ball jumps right out of the cup! Remember the ideas about lower and higher pressure? By blowing on the top of the ball, you created a lower pressure area than underneath the ball. And higher pressure pushes the ball right out of the cup!
Sneaky Bottles
(Modify one water bottle in advance by poking a small hole near the bottom of the bottle with a tack or pin.) Take two water bottles (one of them you just modified), and poke a balloon into each water bottle, stretching the end Of the balloon over the mouth of the bottle. Blow into each one … what happened? There's no place for the air to go in the unmodified bottle, so you can not blow up the balloon. On the other hand, there's plenty of room for the balloon to expand in the modified bottle because there's a place for the air to move when the balloon gets bigger … it goes out the hole you punched.
Flying Papers
Hold a regular sheet of paper to your bottom lip (you may have to play a bit to find the exact location) and blow hard across the sheet. The sheet flies up! This is the same reason airplanes can fly. As you blow across the top of the sheet, you lower the air pressure (because the air is moving faster), and then the pressure on the underside of the sheet is higher, and higher air pressure pushes the sheet upwards.
Kissing Balloons
Blow up two balloons. Attach a piece of sting to each balloon. Have each hand hold one string so that the balloons are at nose-level, 6 "apart. Blow hard between the balloons and watch them move!
The air pressure is lowered as you blow between the balloons (think of the air molecules as ping pong balls … they balls do not have enough time to touch the balloon surface as they zoom by).
The air surrounding the balls that's not really moving is now at a higher pressure, and pushes the balloons together.