What is air of weight?

The experiment is supposed to show that air has weight. You first make a balance by tying a piece of string around the center point of the yardstick and then tying the other end of the string to something like a shower rod, so that the yardstick balances. This may take some work, so be patient.

Next, use the paper clips to attach an empty balloon to each end of the yardstick. If you put them equal distances from the ends of the yardstick, it should again balance.

Once you get this done, carefully remove one of the balloons and inflate it. Tie the neck of the balloon, so it will stay inflated and reattach it to the paper clip. That end of the yardstick now goes down. A balloon full of air weighs more than an empty balloon. We have just shown that air has weight, right?

Before you make up your mind about that, lets think about it. Both balloons are the same. Both paper clips are the same. The only thing that is different is that one is full of air, and the other is not. But wait a minute. The balloon that is full of air is also larger. It takes up more space and displaces more of the stuff around it, which is.....air. That complicates the experiment.

Why is that a complication? Both balloons are surrounded by air, the same stuff that you put inside. To see this in a different way, you need to make a water balloon. Carefully, stretch the neck of a balloon over the end of the faucet in your sink. Just barely turn on the water and carefully inflate the balloon with water. Don't fill it too full, as it will pop and make a mess. Pinch the neck below the faucet and remove the balloon. Make sure all the air is out and then tie a knot in the balloon to keep the water in.

Hold the water balloon in one hand and an empty balloon in the other. Which is heavier? Easy! The water balloon. The difference is that there is water inside the balloon and air on the outside. Put both balloons into a tub of water. Be sure the water is deep enough so that the water balloon will go all the way under the surface. Under water, hold the water balloon in one hand and the empty balloon in the other. Be sure that there is no air in the empty balloon. Under water, they both seem to weigh the same, and they do. You have two balloons with water on the inside and water on the outside. The only thing you are comparing is the weight of the two balloons.

Now lets go back to our original balloons. Why are the balloons the same with water and different with air? When you blew up the balloon, your lungs and the stretchy rubber compressed the air inside. Because it was compressed, the air inside the balloon is denser than the air outside. You have more molecules of air in each cubic inch of space. What you have shown is not that a balloon full of air is heavier than an empty balloon. Instead, you have shown that a volume of compressed air is heavier than the same volume of air at normal air pressure.

Generally, we feel air doesn’t have any weight since it is not visible and just felt.

Are you wondering about, ‘Does air has mass?’!!

If you are interested, we can clear your curiosity about ‘air weight’ through this scientific experiment, i.e., ‘Balloon Balance Experiment.’ Here we go!

Hypothesis: We will prove that air has weight / mass by building a balance scale and performing an air weight experiment.

Check out the concise list of supplies…

Step-1: Build a balance using a ruler and strings! Take a ruler of your chosen material and give it a knot using a piece of string but precisely in the center. Make sure the string is strong enough to hold and balance the ruler scale in place.

Step-2: Now, bring the balance over your work table and attach the other free end of the string to support on the top. If you have a readymade balance available readily at home, then you can also use it.

Step-3: Then, pick the two balloons and blow them up. But you need to blow the two balloons in equal size.

Step-4: After checking, give the balloons a knot at the mouth of them using an equal length piece of string.

Step-5: It is time to fix the balloons on either side ends of the ruler, leaving 3-4 inches of space from the end of the scale. Fix the balloons to the ruler using the other free end of the string attached to the balloon.

As we are taking equal length strings to both the balloons to secure them, we must mostly observe the balloons at the same height even after tying them to the ruler. Finally, you need to check whether the balloons are at equal height from the ruler.

Step-6: At this stage, leave the balance attached with equal-sized and inflated balloons freely. That means let the balance adjust itself, and then you check, both the balloons remain at the same height as the ruler.

It shows that air inside both the balloons has equal mass and remains at the same height when left on balance freely.

Step-7: In step-7, we are going to prove that air has mass! To prove this, pick any sharp object and poke any of the two balloons.

Immediately, you can observe the balance goes down on the side where there is an inflated balloon and the side consisting of deflated balloon goes up.

Just like a see-saw, you can observe the actions of balance when you deflate one of the balloons using a sharp object.

You can alter the experiment with varying mass of balloons to check the results.

According to scientists, air is a type of matter that has mass and occupies space.

Let us prove with our experiment that air has mass and takes up space. In the balloon balance experiment, we are blowing up balloons. When blow-up balloons, the air is entering inside them and making the balloons expand. So, this shows that the air occupies space which eventually proves that it has weight.

And when we tie the balloons to the scale with measurements and deflate one of them, the balance tilts i.e., the side attached to the inflated balloon will be on the lower side, and the side with deflated one goes upwards.

The deflated balloon loses its weight. And because of weight, the inflated balloon goes down, and the deflated one goes up on the scale. Using this, we can prove that air takes up space and has mass.

When we blow up the balloon, the air inside the balloon is under high pressure. Because the amount of air inside the balloon is compressed within a certain amount of space available inside the balloon.

So when we blast it using a sharp object, the balloon’s skin moves away from the blast’s point, allowing the air to come outside. The compressed air comes out of the balloon when it blasts because it weighs more than the surrounding air weight. This shows that air has weight.

A deflated balloon exhibits the weight of the (deflated) balloon and not the air.

Air has no weight when it is free to move from one place to another, but it contains weight when it is filled inside any container because the air inside a container compresses by the walls of balloons, which gives weight to the air inside the balloon.

1) Try out many inflated balloons tied to the ruler scale on either side and perform the same experiment. Check whether there are the same final results or not!

2) Replace the deflated balloon with another inflated balloon and check what exactly happens.

3) Take many inflated balloons and tie them to the string side by side on either side of the scale. And check the results by blasting the balloons on one side at a time and one by one.

4) Try different-sized balloons and check what happens after the experiment.

Galileo, a great scientist who discovered that ‘Air has Mass,’ but he could not prove his statements through scientific reasons adequately. And hence his remarkable discovery on-air weight became colder surrounding with a lot of controversies.

Later, Torricelli put his efforts on the same concept and surmised that air is less dense and exhibits less pressure on the hilly areas. But he just only explained the theory instead of proving it scientifically.

And finally, the scientist Blaise Pascal proved that air weights with proper explanations.

As we already learned that compressed air exhibits weight more than the surrounding air moving freely outside through Balloon Balance Air has Weight Experiment. Let us see how much weight it reveals.

Compressed air weighs more than atmospheric air, and hence a certain amount of compressed air weighs more than the same amount of regular air. I.e., The weight of one cubic foot of air is 0.0807 pounds at 14.7 psi. If we compress the compressed air to 1000 psi, then the air weight per cubic foot is beyond 5 pounds. In this way, compressed air weight is calculated based on the pressure it is experiencing.

Check out other air pressure experiments:

Egg in a Bottle Experiment

Drip Drop Water Bottle

Crushing Can Experiment

FAQ’S

To begin these air pressure experiments wave your hand back and forth in the air. It's easy to move your hand around because air pressure is pressing onto your hands in all directions. Air actually weighs 14.7 pounds per square inch at sea level. That means that every square inch of your body is being pressed on by 14.7 pounds of pressure.

Extending the experiment

Try these air pressure experiments. Balance two deflated balloons on a ruler or stick. Take one balloon off the stick and inflate it. Return the balloon to see what happens. Try balancing several balloons on a yard stick. When you have the yardstick in balance. Predict what you think will happen if you deflate all the balloons, one at a time, from left to right. After writing down your prediction, try this air pressure experiment.

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Air is a real substance and it has weight. That is why it weighs 14.7 pounds per square inch at sea level. What scientists mean when they give this figure is that if a column of air one square inch in size from sea level to the top of the atmosphere above Earth would weigh 14.7 pounds.

If you travel up over a mountain pass air pressure decreases as you move upward. At 18,000 feet above the Earth the air pressure is approximately 7.35 pounds per square inch or half the atmosphere at sea level.

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Air is a real substance and it has weight. That is why it weighs 14.7 pounds per square inch at sea level. What scientists mean when they give this figure is that if a column of air one square inch in size from sea level to the top of the atmosphere above Earth would weigh 14.7 pounds.