Materials
*balloons*metal skewers or wooden skewers
*petroleum jelly (vaseline)
*a sharp pin*cellophane tape
Safety Precautions
*Point the tip of the skewer away from your face
*Put safety goggles on just in case the balloon pops
Procedure
1.Blow up the balloon but not too full
2.Dip the tip of the skewer into the vaseline and then spread the vaseline along the skewer
3.Gently insert the skewer in a twisting motion at the top of the balloon
4.Keep pushing the skewer all the way through until you can see the tip at the other end.
Explanation
Do you know what happened??? Well to answer that question you look deep into the balloon. Well not in the way a fortune teller looks into her glass sphere. No!!! We look muscularly. So rubber consists of polymers (long molecules linked together), but when they are chemically attached to each other then it is called cross-linking. This allows the balloon to be elastic until the pull is too great, then the polymer would break apart. Anyway, now you know this, the explanation of the skewer being able to go through the balloon is this. Since the middle of the balloon is the most stretched and the top and bottom of the balloon isn't then. This lets the skewers slip through the balloon by pushing the elastic molecules aside and the the cross-link remains so the balloon stays intact. This is a long explanation I know but it is quite interesting. Anyway if you are up for it there is another trick that would be fun. Just keep reading.
Procedure
1.Blow another balloon
2.Put the cellophane tape on the side of the balloon
3.Now slowly put the needle through the tape
Explanation
Wasn't that cool. Well the reason for this is that the tape held the balloon together and wouldn't let the elastic stretch which makes the balloon maintain its form. Which means the tape reinforces the cross-link together.
*Point the tip of the skewer away from your face
*Put safety goggles on just in case the balloon pops
Procedure
1.Blow up the balloon but not too full
2.Dip the tip of the skewer into the vaseline and then spread the vaseline along the skewer
3.Gently insert the skewer in a twisting motion at the top of the balloon
4.Keep pushing the skewer all the way through until you can see the tip at the other end.
Explanation
Do you know what happened??? Well to answer that question you look deep into the balloon. Well not in the way a fortune teller looks into her glass sphere. No!!! We look muscularly. So rubber consists of polymers (long molecules linked together), but when they are chemically attached to each other then it is called cross-linking. This allows the balloon to be elastic until the pull is too great, then the polymer would break apart. Anyway, now you know this, the explanation of the skewer being able to go through the balloon is this. Since the middle of the balloon is the most stretched and the top and bottom of the balloon isn't then. This lets the skewers slip through the balloon by pushing the elastic molecules aside and the the cross-link remains so the balloon stays intact. This is a long explanation I know but it is quite interesting. Anyway if you are up for it there is another trick that would be fun. Just keep reading.
Procedure
1.Blow another balloon
2.Put the cellophane tape on the side of the balloon
3.Now slowly put the needle through the tape
Explanation
Wasn't that cool. Well the reason for this is that the tape held the balloon together and wouldn't let the elastic stretch which makes the balloon maintain its form. Which means the tape reinforces the cross-link together.
