Fire Water Balloon - Cool Science Experiment

Common sense tells you that it's impossible to boil water in a paper bag, but this classic parlor trick was a favorite of the Victorian magician. The real difficulty in performing this effect is making it look harder than it is! As you might imagine, the secret lies in yet another amazing property of water - it's ability to conduct heat. Instead of using a paper bag, this modern day version of the demonstration uses an ordinary balloon, some water and a candle. It's a combination that's guaranteed to make people stand back.

About Steve Spangler Science...

[ArbiterMike]

Replace water with gasoline for a much funner experiment!

[JoshyK]

You're right, it's not a good conductor of heat. You may learn in physics class, however, that it DOES have a very high "Heat Capacity", which means that it can take in a lot of calorific energy (or just "heat") without increasing it's temperature very much. You will also learn that high temperature bodies transfer their heat to surrounding lower-temp bodies. So we put these 2 things together: the heat energy goes from flame to the water and "cools down" as it were :)

[narco]

@leomar467 Explanation is in the vid. The water absorbs the heat that would normally be absorbed by the plastic. So the plastic doesn't melt, so the balloon doesn't burst.

Note the air inside the balloon doesn't do the same thing. You should probably explain why in your project.

[cjhatesu]

I click on one Steve Spangler clip and now all I see in my suggestion box is Steve Spangler and this old dude.

[alishababey]

1:33 i laughed to hard xD when he said 'you've learned it difference beetween suck and blow'

[valerianardelean]

He said water is a great conductor of heat?!!!! Definitely not!!! The ballon didnt pop because water has a high specific heat capacity!!!

[hackstricks]

I love this guy! he does so much stuff! bed of nails with baloon was cool.... the newtons beads were awesome.

[Srk]

The science behind this experiment is "Latent heat".The heat supplied is fully absorbed by the water inside without any change in it's temperature.The balloon will blow only after full vapourisation of water.And sometimes it won't blow if the vapouring and condensing rate are equal but depends other factor's too.nice video.

[kingcj]

😂🤣😭😭💀 the balloon had a whole the reporter said “Perhaps from another experiment” 😂🤣 he replied “please”
Jolly good show

[KronikLight]

1:34 Steve: "You learn the difference between blow and suck"
News Guy: "Clearly!"

[brotherscro]

0:54" Imma light ur thing on fire " xD

[snwblake]

need to know what happens to eyeballs when theyre set on fire for a story, this is a good alternative

[noblegladiator]

Its cool how the water boils in the balloon.

[xXinsaneboyXx]

Water is one of the most important and interesting elements and its also one of the most taken for granted elements. (I know it doesn't qualify as an element by definition but you get the point) :P

[weijun]

Mainly things that caught on fire (whether it is a conductor or an insulator) is because they are fuels for fire, not because whether they conduct heat.

[RoXyFoEvA]

now that theres hot water in my ballons can i have a water balloon fight now?

[gabrielamos]

Yes, it will. Keep in mind that the black on the balloon is just soot condensing on it from the candle, you can rub it off with your finger. Candles aren't smokeless, it's just that the smoke is too thin for us to see.

[MonsieurLavabo]

Propane isn't oxygen (nor does it have any) yet it will undergo combustion. Combustion requires oxygen to fulfill the oxidation part of the reaction, but does not require the fuel to be oxygen (absolutely illogical anyway). I'll let you have fun trying to make oxygen go up in flames. Joshykm7's explanation was spot on, by the way.

[thesciencehubskb]

Water is a bad conductor of heat. If you heated a beaker of water it would not disperse the heat throughout the body of water properly until enough time has passed. However, water has a very high specific heat capacity and so it is able to absorb the heat that the candle's flame is giving off away from the bum of the balloon.

[RoyAndrews]

Knowing this, you could make a water insulated suit that you could wear to go into a fire.