Hooked on Science: Expanding a balloon with chemistry

Have you ever mixed vinegar and baking soda? You not only get the fizzing and bubbling, you also get enough carbon dioxide gas to fill up a balloon.

Materials

* Vinegar

* Baking soda

* Balloon

* Bottle with a neck of an inch

Instructions

STEP 1: Add the baking soda to the balloon.

STEP 2: Pour the vinegar into the bottle.

STEP 3: Without dropping in the baking soda, stretch the balloon over the opening of the bottle.

STEP 4: Hold up the balloon and let the baking soda fall into the bottle.

Explanation

When you mixed the baking soda with the vinegar you caused a chemical reaction that created carbon dioxide gas. The carbon dioxide gas caused the balloon to expand.

Jason Lindsey is a Science Outreach Educator with Hooked on Science. Check out his website "Hooked On Science" at hookedonscience.org for webcasts and experiments that might get you hooked on science. Send him your science questions at jlindsey@hookedonscience.org. More science experiments can be found at www.semissourian.com.