Because sometimes I leave stuff around that should have been put away, I need to think on my feet.
Tonight my daughter asked me what this shiny plastic packet was?
So I told her it was a condom.
Next thing both kids are repeating the word 'condom' as if making sure they never forget that word. Before I could follow through imagining embarrassing scenarios where my 2 or 4 year old daughters could use that knowledge,
they ask me "Papi what is it used for?"
Thinking fast I told them it can also be a balloon. A clever evasion if I might say so. I ripped the packet open and continued to demonstrate the inflation of the balloon. "Oooh it's green!" Saffira shrieks gleefully. I stopped blowing when it was getting hard to blow air into it, knotted the end of it and released it.
To my surprise it didn't come down after I released it.
I thought maybe the respired air is warm enough so that it's lighter than air (which is heavier 21% oxygen? or 21% CO2 combined with oxygen?). But what happens when the air cools down? I thought maybe the lightglobe might be keeping it warm, but it stayed up even after the light was switched off.
My best hypothesis is using my understanding of the Combined Gas Law (Boyle/Charles/Gay Lussac) If you squeeze an amount of gas, its temperature increases. I think that somehow the pressure exerted by the stretched material at the correct volume maintains it's temperature. It just also happens that the mass of gas inside the condom plus the mass of the actual condom displaces a heavier amount of surrounding air.
I'm not sure I can replicate this feat. Started out as parenting agility leading into serendipity.
What do you think?
floating condom balloon with nothing but air video here
