Try this super-fun baking soda and vinegar pufferfish experiment and watch your own pufferfish puff up!
What you’ll need:
- Vinegar (1/4 cup)
- Baking soda (2-3 teaspoons)
- A sandwich bag
- A balloon
- A tissue
- A funnel
- Scissors
- Measuring cup and spoon
- Markers or pens (to draw the pufferfish face on the balloon)
- A flat outdoor surface
Method:
- Pour 1/4 cup of vinegar into a sandwich bag.
- Tie the bag tightly so no vinegar can escape.
- Use a tissue to wipe off any vinegar from the outside of the bag and cut extra plastic from the top.
- Set the vinegar bag aside for now.
- Get your balloon and draw a pufferfish face on it. Add fins, spots, or spines to make it look cool!
- Carefully put the vinegar bag inside the balloon. (You might need an extra person to help with this part.)
- Put a funnel in the balloon’s opening.
- Measure 2-3 teaspoons of baking soda and pour it into the balloon through the funnel.
- Take out the funnel and tie the balloon closed.
- Go outside and put your balloon on a flat surface.
- Now for the fun part – STOMP on the balloon! Watch as it puffs up just like a real puffer fish!
The Pufferfish Experiment demonstrates a chemical reaction between vinegar and baking soda, which produces carbon dioxide gas to inflate a balloon. It begins by placing a sealed bag of vinegar inside a balloon decorated like a pufferfish, then adding baking soda to the balloon without mixing the two ingredients. When the balloon is stomped on, it causes the vinegar bag to burst inside, mixing the reactants and rapidly inflating the balloon to mimic a pufferfish’s defensive inflation.
