Balloon Experiments & Information for Lesson Plans & Science Fair Projects, Supplies

A balloon is a flexible bag normally filled with a gas, such as helium, hydrogen, nitrous oxide or air. Early balloons were made of dried animal bladders. Modern balloons can be made from materials such as rubber, latex, polychloroprene or a nylon fabric. Some balloons are purely decorative, while others are used for specific purposes such as meteorology, medical treatment, military defense, or transportation. A balloon's properties, including its low density and relatively low cost, have led to a wide range of applications.

Etymology

The word 'balloon was originally derived from the French word ballon, meaning large ball. This was in turn probably from the latin ballone, but another possible source for it was balla, meaning ball, from Old High German.^[1] Other related words include the Middle English bal, which was probably from the Old English beall, both meaning ball.^[2]

History

The first balloon was invented by Brazilian priest Bartolomeu de Gusmão, and the first public exhibition was to the Portuguese Court on August 8, 1709, in the hall of the Casa da India in Lisbon. The rubber balloon was invented by Michael Faraday in 1824; it was inflated with hydrogen and used in his experiments with that element.^[3]. The more familiar latex balloons of today were first manufactured in London, 1847, by J.G. Ingram,^[4] but mass production did not occur until the 1930s.

Applications

Decoration or Entertainment

Party balloons are mostly made of natural latex tapped from rubber trees and can be filled with air, helium, water, or any other suitable liquid or gas. The rubber's elasticity makes the volume adjustable. Most of this rubber is made from recycled material, such as old tires and tennis shoes.

Filling the balloon with air is done with the mouth, with a manual or electric inflater (such as a hand pump), or with a source of compressed gas.

When rubber balloons are filled with helium so that they float, they typically retain their buoyancy for only a day or so. The enclosed helium atoms escape through small pores in the latex which are larger than the helium atoms. Balloons filled with air usually hold their size and shape much longer.

Even a perfect rubber balloon eventually loses the gas to the outside. The process by which a substance or solute migrates from a region of high concentration, through a barrier or membrane, to a region of lower concentration is called diffusion. The inside of balloons can be treated with a special gel (for instance, the polymer solution sold under the "Hi Float" brand) which coats the inside of the balloon to reduce the helium leakage, thus increasing float time to a week or longer.

Beginning in the late 1970s, some more expensive (and longer-lasting) foil balloons have been made of thin, unstretchable, less permeable metalized plastic films. These balloons have attractive shiny reflective surfaces and are often printed with color pictures and patterns for gifts and parties. The most important attribute of metalized nylon for balloons is its light weight, increasing buoyancy and its ability to keep the helium gas from escaping for several weeks. However, there has been some environmental concern, since the metalized nylon does not biodegrade or shred as a rubber balloon does, and a helium balloon released into the atmosphere can travel a long way before finally bursting or deflating. Release of these types of balloons into the atmosphere is considered harmful to the environment. This type of balloon can also conduct electricity on its surface and released foil balloons can become entangled in power lines and cause power outages.

Released balloons can land almost anywhere, including on nature preserves or other areas where they pose a serious hazard to animals through ingestion or entanglement. Latex balloons are especially dangerous to sea creatures because latex retains its elasticity for 12 months or more when exposed to sea water rather than air.^[5] Because of the harm to wildlife and the effect of litter on the environment, some jurisdictions even legislate to control mass balloon releases. Legislation proposed in Maryland, USA was named after Inky, a pygmy sperm whale who needed 6 operations after swallowing debris, the largest piece of which was a mylar balloon.^[6]^[7]

Professional balloon party decorators use electronic equipment to enable the exact amount of helium to fill the balloon. For non-floating balloons air inflators are used. Professional quality balloons are used, which differ from most retail packet balloons by being larger in size and made from 100% biodegradable latex.

A toy balloon is an inflatable object which is often made of plastic or natural, biodegradable rubber.

Natural Rubber, also known as latex, is a highly flexible substance which is extracted from certain plants. Latex balloons contain small amounts of nitrosamines, but the amount which they release is non-hazardous. Nitrosamine is used as a solvent when processing latex. There are methods of reducing the amount of Nitrosamine in the finished product, but these methods are expensive.

Inflatable foil balloons are made from plastics, such as aluminized PET film. Foil balloons are not elastic like rubber balloons, so that detailed and colorful pictures printed on their surfaces are not distorted when the balloon is inflated. Foil balloons are thus named because they sometimes have a metallic coating to make them shiny, however there have been concerns about metallic balloons causing short circuits when caught in overhead power lines.

Every toy balloon has an opening through which gases are blown into it. Balloons are usually filled by using one's breath, a pump, or a pressurized gas tank. The opening can then be tied off or clamped. Foil balloons are typically self-sealing. By filling a balloon with a gas lighter than air, such as helium, the balloon can be made to float. Helium is the preferred gas for floating balloons, because it is inert and will not catch fire (like hydrogen) or cause toxic effects when inhaled. Small, light objects (postcards, in balloon mail for example) are sometimes placed in balloons along with helium and released into the air and, when the balloon eventually falls, the object inside might be found by another person. Rubber balloons can also be filled with liquids (usually water) and can burst when they impact a solid object. Liquid-filled balloons are commonly referred to as "water balloons" or "water bombs" and used in playful fights, and sometimes vandalism.

Most toy balloons are a simple oval-like shape. Other balloons are longer and more cylindrical. Long balloons are often twisted and bent into simple, or intricate shapes which will hold their form when released. Balloon artists are people who quickly twist balloons into familiar or abstract shapes using the techniques of balloon modelling, usually for profit. Toy balloons are used as decorations and/or advertising space. Balloons are usually purchased in deflated form, however some party stores and vendors at special events will fill their balloons before selling them.

While toy balloons are primarily a toy, they are also sometimes used for demonstrations in classrooms.

Balloon modeling and balloons in art

Balloon artists are entertainers who twist and tie inflated tubular balloons into sculptures (see balloon animal). The balloons used for balloon sculpture are made of extra-stretchy rubber so that they can be twisted and tied without bursting. Since the pressure required to inflate a balloon is inversely proportional to the diameter of the balloon, these tiny tubular balloons are extremely hard to inflate initially. A pump is usually used to inflate these balloons.

Decorators may use hundreds of helium balloons to create balloon sculptures. Usually the round shape of the balloon restricts these to simple arches or walls, but on occasion more ambitious "sculptures" have been attempted. It is also common to use balloons as tables decorations for celebratory events. Table decorations normally appear with 3 or 5 balloons on each bouquet. Ribbon is curled and added with a weight to keep the balloons from floating away.

Water balloons

Water balloons are thin, small rubber balloons intended to be easily broken. They are usually used by children, who throw them at each other, trying to get each other wet, as a game or practical joke. They can be used in competitions or games. They are smaller than regular ballons.

Balloon rockets

Balloons are often deliberately released, creating so called balloon rocket or rocket balloon. Rocket balloons work because the elastic balloons contract on the air within them, and so when the mouth of the balloon is left open, the gas within the balloon shoots out, and, due to Newton's third law of motion, the balloon is propelled forward. This is fundamentally the same way that a rocket works.^[8]

A balloon rocket is a balloon filled with air. Besides being simple toys, balloon rockets are a widely used teaching device to demonstrate physical principles and the functioning of a rocket.

To launch a simple rocket, a person releases the opening of a balloon, which is then propelled somewhat randomly by the escape of the air which creates thrust. The flight altitude amounts to some meters. The balloon rocket can be used easily to demonstrate simple physics, namely Newton’s third law.

A common variant of the balloon rocket consists in adding other components such as a string, a drinking straw and adhesive tape to the balloon itself. The string is threaded through the straw and is attached at both ends to objects of some kind, such as a doorknob on one end and a chair on the other. The straw is then taped to the side of the air-filled balloon, with the open end of the balloon touching one of the objects. When the balloon is released, the thrust from the opening propels it along the length of the string. Alternatively, a balloon rocket car can be built.

Flying machines

Large balloons filled with hot air or buoyant gas have been used as flying machines since the 18th century. The earliest flights were made with hot air balloons using air heated with a flame, or hydrogen; later, helium was used.

Medicine

Angioplasty is a surgical procedure in which very small balloons are inserted into blocked or partially blocked blood vessels near the heart. Once in place, the balloon is inflated to clear or compress arterial plaque, and to stretch the walls of the vessel, thus preventing myocardial infarction. A small stent can be inserted at the angioplasty site to keep the vessel open after the balloon's removal.^[9]

Balloon catheters are catheters that have balloons at their tip to keep them from slipping out. For example, the balloon of a Foley catheter is inflated when the catheter is inserted into the urinary bladder and secures its position.^[10]

Contents

Etymology

History

Applications

Decoration or Entertainment

Balloon modeling and balloons in art

Water balloons

Balloon rockets

Flying machines

Medicine

See also

Notes

External links