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On the Inflation of a Rubber Balloon

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Smartphones as Mobile Minilabs in Physics

Abstract

It is a well-known fact that it is difficult to start a balloon inflating. But after a pressure peak that occurs initially, it becomes far easier to do it! The purpose of this chapter is to establish the experimental pressure-radius chart for a rubber balloon and to compare it to the theoretical one. We will demonstrate that the barometer of a smartphone is a very suitable tool to reach this goal. We hope that this phenomenon will help students realize that sometimes very simple questions can lead to very interesting and counterintuitive science.

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Correspondence to Julien Vandermarlière .

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Vandermarlière, J. (2022). On the Inflation of a Rubber Balloon. In: Kuhn, J., Vogt, P. (eds) Smartphones as Mobile Minilabs in Physics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94044-7_26

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