This activity was developed by a student or students at Mainland High School which is located in Daytona Beach, FL.   It is still a "work in progress" with editing and improvements yet to come.

Steps to Making a Balloon Ball

  Inflate one balloon until it feels tight, but not stretched. (This seems so subjective… Your goal is that the balloon be inflated as big as possible while still being able to be covered with an inflated balloon.)

   Tie a knot in the "neck" of a balloon

  Clip the "neck" of another balloon as shown in the illustration below.

  One Student should stretch the clipped balloon while the partner stuffs the inflated balloon inside. Once this is done (the WORST is over), another balloon is clipped and used to cover the inflated balloon ball.

  Continue covering until all the balloons have been used.

An oblong balloon can be "rounded" by positioning the open end of the clipped balloon in different spot each time. Clip the "ring" off <image> the remaining band and use it to decorate and shape the balloon ball.

Number of balloons used to make your bouncing balloon:_________

….find the average of your two averages! ________
We will call this number the constant of your function.

Under the best of scientific testing conditions, the function of your Balloon Ball would have been a Linear Function, meaning that it’s graph would be on a line.

Let’s see how close you came to optimum conditions by graphing your X’s and Y’s from both trials…..

…..how did you do? Are your results an approximation of a line?  What are some casual factors?

  Once again, what was the constant of your function?

  How would you account for the difference in your constant and your partner's constant? (Give at least two possible causes)

  How could you use your constant to make predictions concerning your bouncing balloon?

  Let’s try! If the drop height were _______, what would you predict the bounce height to be?

  How did your experimental results compare with your predicted results? Explain any similarities or differences.