Madi+R13


 * TESTING DESERT ITEMS AND THEIR RELATIONSHIPS WITH BALLOONS **

Madi R.

Cary Academy

2012-2013

**ABSTRACT** The purpose of the main experiment was to find out which material (coke, honey, whipped cream, chocolate syrup) floated the best in a balloon. The hypothesis was that whipped cream would float the best, honey would float second best, chocolate syrup would float the second worst, and coke would float the worst. First in the method, a balloon was filled with chocolate syrup before it was blown up. Then, it was blown up, and taken to a stairwell that was 4.54 meters tall. Then, the balloon was dropped from the top of the stairwell and the time it took to hit the bottom was recorded. After that, the method steps were repeated with coke, honey, and whipped cream. Lastly, the results were calculated and recorded. Whipped Cream is the lightest because it took the longest amount of time (1.86 seconds) for the balloon to hit the ground. Honey was the second lightest with 1.24 seconds, Chocolate Syrup was the second heaviest with 1.13, and Coke was the heaviest with 0.95 seconds.

There were no major findings or discoveries in Experiment 1, but if the experiment was to be done again, I would have used a wider variety of foods. I think the next experiment would be dropped balloon with materials in them from different heights, and seeing which one prevailed in **all** of them.
 * EXPERIMENTAL IMPROVEMENTS AND FUTURE EXPERIMENTS **

To make Experiment 2 better I would have had more people smell the ingredients. The follow up experiment for this would be seeing which one tastes the best.

There were not major findings in Experiment 3, but to make it better I would try shaking up the beaker. The follow up experiment to this one would be testing the circumference of the balloon with the material and only baking soda.

There were no major findings in Experiment 4, but to make this experiment better I would keep the balloons in the incubator for 5 minutes instead of 2. The follow up experiment for this would be testing them in a refrigerator to see which one got the coldest.