Experiments in Mrs Doheny's Class - Energy and Forces Step 1 and Maths Step 4

Strand: Energy and Forces

Strand Unit: Forces (air)

1.    We considered whether air is strong.

2.   Many children posited that moving air is strong as evidenced by the recent storms

3.   We thought we might see could we prove this in the classroom

4.   Then we might look at whether still air is strong.

Experiment 1:  Is moving air strong?

Equipment; A hairdryer and a ping pong ball.

Children predicted whether the moving air from the hairdryer might be able to hold up a light ball. Some children thought it would, others thought it might fall off the air column.

So we tried it... see photos and the moving air was able to hold up a table tennis ball weighing 2.7g.

Experiment 2; Is still air strong?

Equipment: A table and 8 balloons.

We turned a table upside down and placed 8 balloons under it.

The children predicted that if a child walked across the upturned table that the balloons would cetainly burst. So we tried it! The balloons were able to hold up the weight of the children. Still air is strong. Each child took a turn walking over the table.

We found out that the average weight of a 7 year old is about 22 kg. We worked out that each balloon could support almost 3kg of weight.

Then we thought of practical applications of this ability of air to be strong and we thought of air beds and tyres.

Who knew air could be such fun!