Another day at Technicraft!

It was another day at Technicraft. Our assignment in science class was to heat up a flask with an ice cube inside attached to a balloon using a meths burner in the hopes that the balloon would inflate. We had to use a tripod, a gauze mat, a meths burner, a flask, an ice cube and a balloon.

At first we had to light the burner. Unlike yesterday, I was able to light the burner with my first match, without burning myself. Our ice cube was too big to fit inside the flask, so we had to rub our hands against it to use our body's heat to melt the ice cube and make it smaller.

We used a tripod and a gauze mat as a sort of platform for the flask. Our meths burner was supposed to go underneath it. When I put the burner underneath it, something stirred up inside the flask.

The ice cube was slowly melting, but the balloon was rising. Steam popped up inside, swirling around. Our balloon was lopsided in a 45-degree position, but it was still rising.

Soon, the meths burner lost most of its fire, and the  balloon didn't move up or down, its heat still trapped inside the polyester. We tried to use cubes to put the burner closer to the bottom of the flask, but it didn't make a difference.

Finally, the ice melted. We were told to 'cap' our burner, which meant we had to use a cap to put out our burner. We slid off the burner with our thumb, and the hot air finally escaped. The balloon was now dead, uninflated.

I really liked it when the balloon started to inflate.