Important COVID-19 Updates: ACCHaoS is not conducting school visits for the foreseeable future. Please check back for updates about when we will be scheduling events again.

Soaring Sphere

Angle the fan upward, and place the beach ball in the column of air. It will stay there! You can move the fan around and the ball will follow. You can also place your hand above the ball (not touching it), and as you move your hand towards the fan, the ball will float closer to the fan without touching your hand.

The ball stays in place because of Bernoulli's principle. Faster moving air has lower pressure, so the higher pressure air around the flowing air column pushes the ball inward into the column. This is the same principle that allows planes to fly (the wing shape slows down the air below the wing, so the air pressure is higher below and lower above the wing, which pushes the plane upward).

Materials

  • small fan or leaf-blower (it needs to be strong enough, and the size of the air column should be about the same as the ball)
  • beach ball

Construction Instructions

The hard part is selecting the fan, other than that it's surprisingly simple to set up.