Flight and Air Pressure Experiments!

By Richard Olsen | Posted: Wednesday June 1, 2016

As part of our current 'flight'unit  we have been looking closely at air pressure and the difference between high and low air pressure. 

Our current flight unit covers a range of different areas involving air pressure and flight. Recently we looked at the difference in air pressure above and below the wing of a plane and exactly what it is that creates lift. 

In the above photo the challenge was to get the boiled egg inside the bottle without forcing it in with our hands. We could only use the bottle, newspaper,  and matches. The experiment is a great one to demonstrate the difference in air pressure. 

Basically what happens is once the piece of newspaper is lit and placed in the bottle it creates an area of low pressure as all the air is moving to try and get outside the bottle. We all know that moving air creates low pressure (like the top side of the wing of a plane). The air pressure outside the bottle is now high pressured and as a result the egg is forced into the bottle. 

We had a lot of fun with this activity and it was a great way to look at the difference in pressure.