Water Balloon Bounce

Actual Elapsed Time: 1/10th of a second

A water balloon falls onto a table - bouncing and pulsing in weird and wild ways. The shape of a water balloon changes depending on the forces acting upon it. Normally, the only forces are gravity (pulling the water down) and the balloon's tension (keeping the water in). Together these forces produce a round shape. But when the balloon hits a solid object such as a table, new forces are created that distort the balloon. These distortions happen too quickly to be seen with the naked eye. But by slowing down the action to one hundredth normal speed we can see that at first the water pushes outward, stretching the balloon. The balloon flexes back, pushing the water back towards the center. This combination of the balloon's tension and the force of the moving water creates the weird dance seen in this clip.

How This Clip Was Made:

This slow-motion video was created using a special video camera that takes 250 images a second, as opposed to only 30 images a second for a normal video camera. The video was then digitized and transferred to a computer. The action was slowed down even more by displaying each image twice. Footage provided by: NAC Visual Systems. Special Thanks: Dick Freeborg, NAC Visual Systems.

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