No helium needed to fill balloons for parties….
Exploring Gas w/Balloons, Baking Soda & Vinegar
What You Need:
baking soda
vinegar
plastic bottle
balloon
funnels (we used 2)
What To Do:
1. Using your funnel pour vinegar into your bottle.
You only need to fill about 1/3 of the bottle.
2. Using another (dry) funnel pour baking soda into your balloon.
Fill the balloon approx. 1/2 way.
3. Cover the top of the bottle with you balloon.
Make sure you don’t let the baking soda spill into the bottle prematurely.
4. When ready, lift your balloon and let the baking soda fall into the vinegar.
5. Watch as the mixture fizzes, bubbles & expands your balloon!
6. Discuss how the baking soda & vinegar produce a gas which fills the balloon.
7. Repeat! Believe me, your kids will want to do this more than once.
It was lots of fun for the Lil Divas to watch the ingredients combine and form a reaction that was so visual – blowing up the balloon.
The science behind it - Baking soda and the vinegar create an ACID-BASE reaction. When combined/mixed they create a gas – carbon dioxide. Gasses need room to spread, so the carbon dioxide fills the bottle and then moves into the balloon inflating it.
