Interesting Ways to Blow Up a Balloon

Tap to Read ➤ Girija Shinde

A balloon can be blown up in many interesting and fun ways, without using your mouth. This story enlists some of these crazy tricks, that will not only help you in blowing up balloons for decoration, but also entertain the audience while you do so.

For almost every special occasion, decorations made up of balloons are a must. Blowing up balloons is fun, but only until there are a couple of them. It is almost impossible to blow them up with your mouth if you have to decorate a huge party hall. So, at such times, some simple tricks can come in handy. These ways are also entertaining to the guests. These tricks can also be used for science projects too.

Using Vinegar and Baking Soda

Place two tbsp of vinegar in a 16.9-oz plastic lidless bottle. Make sure that the bottle is placed on a flat surface, so that it does not trip off. Now open the mouth of the balloon with two fingers of each hand. Only use new balloons, as reusing old ones might not be fully effective. Stretch it open by placing the fingers inside.

Do not release it, ask another person to spoon only one tsp baking soda into it. Slowly stretch its mouth over the bottle, without spilling out any of the baking soda. Make sure that all the baking soda is transferred to the bottle. As soon as the baking soda comes in contact with the vinegar, the balloon will inflate and burst automatically.

Using Yeast

Take a 16-oz. bottle and fill it up to one inch with warm water. Add the entire yeast packet to it, and then gently shake the bottle. Yeast becomes active in warm water, so make sure that the water is warm. Add 1 tsp of sugar to the bottle and set aside. Like in the earlier method, open the mouth of the balloon using your fingers.

Using Dry Ice

Dry ice is one object that sublimates, i.e., turns directly into a gaseous state without turning liquid. This is the reason why we can use dry ice for blowing up a balloon. Put a few pellets of dry ice in a plastic bottle.

Fit the neck of the balloon over the neck of the bottle, and if necessary, put a rubber band over the bottle's neck to keep it in place. As the dry ice begins to melt, it will start inflating. If you want a quicker result, shake the bottle vigorously, as the air current will make the dry ice sublimate faster.

An interesting fact about this experiment is that, the carbon dioxide in the balloon gives sound an amplification type effect; you can try this by talking through it.

If you are planning to try these as a science experiment, make sure that you write down your observations after each step.