Atmospheric Pressure Science Fair Projects

Activity 1

Take a bicycle-pump and a football pump. Inflate a balloon and a bicycle tube by using the bicycle-pump. Similarly, pump some air into a football with the help of a football pump. You car observe that all the three, namely the balloon, the bicycle tube and the football are inflated. How does it happen? The tiny molecules of the gases present in air strike the walls of the balloon, the bicycle tube and the football and exert pressure. The air pressure exerted on their wall inflates them.

Activity 2

Take a foolscap size of paper and spread it on a flat table. Insert a foot rule near the edge inside the paper, as shown in Fig. Now smoothly flatten the paper so that the entire air between the paper and the table top is expelled. Can you lift the paper by pressing the free end of the rule? No. The air pressure on the paper is so large that the force applied on the rule is not sufficient to raise the paper.

You have seen the use of suction cups in shops and your homes. They work on the same principle. They are fixed on walls, doors and windows to hold objects of large weights.