Properties of Air

Air Takes Up Space

Take an empty ziploc bag, open it and pull it through the air like
a parachute. Now close it, seal it and try to squish the bag.
There’s nothing in the bag, right? Wrong. The ziploc bag is full
of air.
You can also prove this by blowing up a balloon. The balloon
expands because you are putting something into the balloon;
air. This air takes up space, so the more air you put into the
balloon, the more space it takes up. When you use a pump to
blow up a football, you don’t put nothing into it, you put air into it
- this air takes up space which is why the football expands.

Try it Yourself:
Tube in a Cup | Air Force | Diving Paper | Huff and Puff
Air Has Mass
Place an empty balloon on a scale and weigh it. Take this same
ballon and inflate it. Weigh it again. What do you see?. A really
clear way to show this is to make a balance with a stick or coat-
hanger suspended by a string in the middle. Tie an empty
balloon on each side to prove they weigh the same. Inflate one
balloon and rehang it. That side of the balance will be heavier. If
air had no mass, there would’ve been no change.

Air is really quite heavy. It is just that it has always been there for
you and me so we do not notice. Asking a human if air is heavy
is like asking a fish if water is heavy.

Every square inch of surface on the earth has about 15 pounds

of air sitting on it. (Air is piled about 100 miles high on each
square inch.) Just for fun, calculate the number of square
inches on the top of your head and multiply it by 15. Wow... you
are holding all that up!?!?

Try it Yourself: Balancing Act | Feel the Force
Air Exerts Pressure
Take a metre stick and lay it on a table. Unfold a full page of a
newspaper and lay it flat over the metre stick. Push down on the
other end of the metre stick. What happens? Why can’t you lift a
super-light piece of paper? Air exerts pressure (in all
directions).
The air above the paper pushes down on it (pressure). This
pressure is what makes the paper lay flat on the table - it’s
being pushed down. Even though they’re too tiny to see, all the
molecules of air in the atmosphere above your head weigh
something. And the combined weight of these molecules
causes a pressure pressing down on your body of 10,000 kg
per square metre (10,000 kg = 22,000 lbs). This means that the
mass of the air above the 0.1 square metre cross section of your
body is 1,000 kg, or a tonne.

If you tried to lift a small car, you’d definitely notice it, so why
don’t we notice that there’s a tonne of air pressing down on us?
Well, the air exerts this force in all directions, so as well as
pushing down on us, it also pushes up and balances out the
force on our bodies so that we don’t collapse.

Try it Yourself:
Feel the Force | Test Your Strength | Unspillable Water
Air is affected by Temperature
Take a balloon and place it over the top of a pop bottle (2L is
best with a little bit of water in it). Observe the size of the balloon
now (@room temperature). Now place it in a freezer for 10
minutes, remove it and observe size of balloon. Now take the
bottle and hold it in a baking dish of almost-boiling water for 10
minutes. Now let the bottle sit on the table for 10 minutes. You
should now see the balloon return to the same size as it was to
start.

The greater the temperature, the faster the air particles move
(increasing pressure), hitting the sides of the balloon more often
and harder, making the balloon inflate more. The colder the air
becomes though, the slower the air particles move (lowering
pressure), resulting in the same amount of air now taking up
less space. This is why the beach-ball you left in the garage
over night will be “smaller” in the morning that it was during the
day (when it was warmer).

Try it Yourself:
Adjust the Volume
Air can be Compressed
Take a plastic pop bottle and with the cap off the bottle, hold
you hand above the mouth of the bottle and squeeze. What do
you feel? Screw the cap on tightly and squeeze again. What
happens when you squeeze the bottle now? Now, fill the bottle
completely with water, replace the cap and squeeze
again. What do you feel now?

When you squeezed the open
bottle, you forced some of the air out of the mouth. When you
placed the cap on the bottle and squeezed again, there was no
place for the air to go, but you were able to squeeze the bottle
together. In other words, you were able to compress (or
squeeze together) the air inside the bottle. However, when you
filled the bottle with water and capped it, you could not squeeze
the bottle very much at all because you could not compress the
water inside.

Gases such as air can be compressed, but
liquids such as water, cannot be compressed.

Try it Yourself:
Balloon Rocket | Book Blast

Air is affected by Altitude
The higher you are, the lower the air pressure. There is less air
above you to push the air down (which would increase the air
pressure). This is why climbers on Everest use oxygen tanks -
the air outside is too thin at the summit for them to breathe
normally. Human bodies are used to air pressure. The air
pressure in our lungs, ears and stomachs is the same as the air
pressure outside of our bodies, which ensures that we don’t get
crushed. Our bodies are also flexible enough to cope when the
inside and outside pressures aren’t exactly the same. Airplanes
need pressurized cabins to compensate for the lower air
pressure at high altitudes. Despite this “pretend” atmosphere,
the air pressure inside an plane is not the same as at sea level.
You might have noticed that if you drink from a plastic bottle
during a flight and put the lid back on, when you land the bottle
will be crushed. This is because the air in the bottle is at the
lower pressure of the airplane cabin and it can’t withstand the
higher air pressure at ground level.
You’ve probably also noticed that your ears pop during the take
off or landing of a flight. This is caused by the difference in air
pressure on either side of your ear drums and the only way to
equalize the pressures is to yawn, chew some gum or breathing
out while holding your nose.

Try it Yourself:
Air Buoyancy