Apologia Science Curriculum – Understanding the Wind
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Getting Started
Are you looking for a fun way to expand your Apologia science curriculum? Why not blow some hot air? This science experiment helps you to understand Bernoulli’s Principle, which has everything to do with moving wind. You can also use this project for several different segments of your Apologia science curriculum (it’s pretty versatile – like air!)
To get started, you’ll need to gather together a few materials:
• A hair dryer (it should have a circular nozzle)
• A balloon
• A ping pong ball
Once you have these materials collected, you’re ready to get started! Here’s what you’ll need to do:
• Blow up the balloon and tie it shut.
• Hold the balloon an arm’s length away from your body and let go.
• Record your observations about what happens to the balloon when you let it go.
• Next, take the hair dryer and turn it on so the balloon falls within the air stream. Play around with the balloon and air stream.
• Record your observations. When you tilt the nozzle slowly from side to side, what happens to the balloon? Does the balloon stay in an air stream from the hair dryer? If you tilt the nozzle to vertical, what happens to the balloon? What causes the balloon to stay in the air stream from the hair dryer or to fall out of it?
• Next, experiment with the ping pong ball. Place the ball in the hair dryer’s air stream and play around.
• Record your observations. What happens to the ball? Will the ball float on the air stream of the hair dryer? Can the balloon and ball share the same air stream? Does one have to be placed on top of another in order to stay in the same air stream?
- Apologia Science Curriculum – Understanding Heat Through Rubber Bands
If you’re working with the Apologia science curriculum, then you’ll definitely be looking for some fun science experiments that you can do when it comes time to learning more about heat and the physics of heat. - Apologia Science Curriculum – It Glows!
If you’re looking for a fun science project that will impress your friends and enhance your Apologia science curriculum, then look no further than this It Glows! project. - Homeschool Science – Floating Soap Bubbles
This homeschool science project provides an easy way to learn about how color is made up of different wavelengths of light and about how simple chemistry affects gravity. - Homeschool Science Education
This is a great free resource specifically for homeschool science education. Definitely download it right away.
What Happened?
Understanding what you’ve seen:
Now that you’ve spent some time playing around with the hair dryer and different objects, it’s time to think a little harder about what you’ve seen and why things happened the way they did. By the way, if you’re looking for more experiments to complement your Apologia science curriculum, check out this website for great homeschool science resources.
You probably noticed that when you held the balloon out from your body and let it go, the balloon dropped to the floor. This is because the balloon is denser than the air surrounding it. However, because it is only slightly denser than air, it was fairly easy to keep it up with a stream of air from the hair dryer, right?
However, when you tilted the hair dryer, the balloon moved with the column of air. But why?
Bernoulli’s Principle
The balloon moved with the column of air when you tilted the hair dryer because of the good ole Bernoulli’s Principle, which states that air pressure decreases when air is inside of a flowing stream of air. When the balloon is in this pressure stream, it is held in place because of the higher density of air outside of the stream that creates a sort-of boundary for the balloon.
How does hot air make things work in our everyday life? How about with a hot air balloon? Now that you have seen the effects of hot air on a balloon, think about where else Bernoulli’s principle is used on an everyday basis. You may be surprised!
