balloon over candle.jpg

Look at the picture above. Why doesn't the balloon pop when placed over a candle? The reason has to do with specific heat capacity. If the balloon contained air, then it would pop when placed over a candle. This is because air has a low specific heat capacity of 1.01 J/g^oC. This means that when it is placed over a candle, it heats up rapidly, allowing the balloon material to also heat up rapidly. However, this balloon has water in it. Water has a much higher specific heat capacity of 4.18 J/g^oC. Therefore, when the balloon is placed over the flame, the water absorbs the heat and the balloon material does not increase in temperature as much, so the balloon doesn't pop. The video below demonstrates this phenomenon.

When you are done watching the video, click next to answer the quiz questions.

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negative, since ΔT is negative