Floating Ball (Funky Physics Experiments)

You will need:

1. Ping-pong balls
2. Hair dryer

Turn an experiment into a competition between your friends to find out who can float ping-pong balls in the air the longest.

INSTRUCTIONS

1. With the help of your friends, switch on the hair dryer to the maximum level and point the air-flow upwards.
2. Carefully place a ping-pong ball in the flow of hot air and watch it balance
   itself in the air stream.
3. Try and tilt the hair dryer while the ball floats and see how far you can angle it before the ball falls.
4. You can even add 1 or 2 more ping-pong balls and challenge your friends to float the maximum number of balls.

RESULT

Thanks to Bernoulli, we understand the inverse relationship of air speed with air pressure. The same principle is applied in this experiment as well. The air speed coming from the hair dryer is faster than that around it, and the air pressure is subsequently lower than the pressure around it. Once the ball comes into the air stream, it moves upwards until it reaches a point where the force of gravity tries to push it downwards. It remains there floating, caught between air pressure and gravity.