Pour about 1/3 cup of baking soda into the funnel and shake it around a bit until it all falls through the funnel and into the balloon. Stretch the opening of the balloon over the end of the funnel. The gas expands up and out of the bottle and inflates the balloon.Īnother cool thing about these balloons is that carbon dioxide is heavier than air, so when you drop the balloon, you’ll notice that it falls to the ground faster than a regular balloon filled with air! (So no, these balloons definitely don’t float!)
The reaction creates carbon dioxide gas that bubbles up from the mixture. So how does it work? The vinegar and the baking soda mix together to make an acid-base reaction. Attach the balloon to the mouth of the plastic bottle, then lift the balloon upright so the baking soda falls and causes the reaction.Fill a plastic bottle with approximately 1 cup vinegar.Use a funnel to add 1/3 cup baking soda to the inside of a balloon.Looking for even more awesome experiments to try with your kids?! You might want to try these out!
Who doesn’t love blowing up a soggy balloon!? So we were all pretty excited that we could blow up balloons another way, without using our mouths!Ĭheck out our video for how to inflate balloons using baking soda and vinegar: And when that fails – they are only 5 and 3 years old, so they definitely don’t have the lung power yet to blow them up by themselves – they hand me a wet balloon and say “Mommy, can you blow this up?”. Whenever I wrap presents (I keep the balloons with my ribbons and bows), they always sneak one out, and instantly put it in their mouths and start blowing. I swear, every time I give them a balloon, they find a way to entertain themselves with it for hours (or until it hits the popcorn ceiling and it pops – EEK!).
I love that we had all of the materials needed for it at home already, and that it was quick and easy to put together! And on top of that, it was pretty darn cool to watch the balloon inflate all by itself! These baking soda and vinegar balloons were so much fun! Mix everything together and watch as the reaction creates carbon dioxide and inflates the balloons! As far as science experiments go, this is a pretty simple one.