How is this possible? To test this out, find an empty two liter bottle and a balloon. Attach the balloon over the nozzle of the two liter bottle and carefully place/hold the two liter bottle in a pot of hot, but not boiling, water. After a minute or two the balloon will begin to increase in size.
A couple of minutes later the balloon looked like this:
As you can see, the balloon has definitely grown in size, but the big question is how/why it did this. There is some air in the balloon and bottle at the beginning of the experiment. As the bottle is heated from the surrounding hot water, the temperature of the air inside the bottle increases. As temperature increases, the air inside begins to expand. Since the air has nowhere to go, it pushes on the sides of the balloon and the balloon begins to grow inside.
As another test, take the bottle out, leaving the balloon attached and place it in the refrigerator for a minute or two. Very quickly the air will cool down, contract, and the balloon will shrink in size.
This is another fun science experiment for kids.
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