Air Science Experiment

What You Need:

• Large empty bottle
• paper
• Tape

What You Do:

What Happened?

When your child attempted to get the paper ball into the opening of the bottle, the hair dryer was pushing air into the bottle and compressing the air. As a result, the bottle was so full of air that there was not enough space for the ball to get into the bottle. You can try again with the blow dryer turned off or turned away and see that now the ball can go into the bottle. This experiment demonstrates that air has volume even if it can’t be seen at times.

1. Place the empty bottle on its side and hold it down.
2. Ask your child to make a ball out of the paper that can fit inside the bottle’s opening.
3. Turn on the hair dryer and point it at the opening of the dryer.
4. Ask your child to make a ball out of the paper that can fit inside the bottle’s opening.
5. Ask your child to observe what happened and think about why the paper ball wouldn’t go into the bottle.