Why Do Balloons Pop?

Why do balloons make so much noise when they pop? Is it the pressure? A sonic boom from the latex? Something else? Watch the video and find out why balloons make the pop sound!

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Sources:
NASA article:
ColinFurze:
Veritasium:
How Ridiculous
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[Alpay-lu]

Yes, it is cool and I am happy to consume random science.

[porkchop]

After giving this some thought I wonder if different types of gas/air would emit a different sound decibel

[densondirosa]

The drum sound theory you spoke of also can be thought of as the latex skin of the balloon is like a foam or paper cone in a speaker, which amplifies & projects sound. When the balloons skin starts to tear at the point it’s pierced, it’s still largely intact & CONE SHAPED like the speaker thus causing amplification & projection.

[christianpascual]

I was just suddenly curious how balloons pop, then I found this guy. He is so underrated, this is vsauce level video

[lordesfairgenug]

Any turbulence creates noise. A slow moving object is not heard, a fast moving object creates turbulence and we hear it. On the shadowgraphs one can also see the emergence of Rayleigh-Taylor instability, this is the turbulence we are looking for, the propagation of the rubber tearing creates zones of new instabilities from which new sound is emitted, explaining the time frame during which we hear sound.
In water it works very similar, so when you release a barrier from a pressurized container, you will also generate sound waves. However water sound waves travel at 1500m/s and we hear air sound travelling at 340m/s. Water and air are also not good at coupling their sound waves, for coupling oscillators it is good if they are at the same eigenfrequenz, the same eigenfrequenz is achieved when the ratio of k and m is the same, where k is the spring constant and m is the mass. In a given volume, the mass of air is much lower, whereas the "spring" of water is much stiffer, so these 2 oscillators do not couple so well together, making it hard for the water sound waves to be transferred into the air as sound waves.

[danielcarter]

What if it's tearing the fabric of this dimension with the multiple breaking points pulling away at the same time from such a small area

[shsd]

WHAT theres only 900 views this was a very good video i expected more views

[porkchop]

I love balloons. My hypothesis has always been that when the air rushes out and the displacement of the air that was in the balloon broke the sound barrier making a sonic boom.💥

[teeandRndmpacman]

It would be nice to discuss the energy idea more from a thermodynamics perspective. Both the water and gas are at high pressure, but the energy is related to the Pressure*Volume change where because water is incompressible that volume change term is near zero making the water hold less energy than the air that can undergo a greater volume change.

[Potatocarguy]

If curious, do watch, pretty cool stuff

[spazbog]

If it was the latex, then a water balloon would also make the same noise, in fact regardless of the contents of the balloon the stretched latex would make the noise if it was down to the latex.