Every once and again, I see something online that I think would be fun to do. I like to find activities that are secretly educational and fun for the whole family!!! This one is called Ghost tea bags. In a nut shell- cut open a tea bag, empty the contents, light it on fire, and watch it fly.
The science behind it! (Instructions below)
Lighting the top of the teabag heats the air inside. The air molecules start to move more quickly and spread out to take up more space. As the air molecules spread out, the air inside the bag becomes less dense. Warm, less dense air rises above cool, dense air. The ash of the teabag is light and doesn’t require much force to lift it. As the warm, less dense air rises, it has enough force to lift the ash of the teabag.
Materials
- Tea bag- thicker bags work better
- Nonflammable surface (a flat dinner plate works well)
- Matches or lighter
- Scissors
- Remove the staple, string, and label from the bag of tea.
- If your bag of tea is not open on its ends, cut both ends off and empty out the tea into the trash.
- Unfold the bag of tea so that it is completely straight.
- Use your fingers to open up the bag of tea. You should end up with a shape resembling a cylinder.
- Stand the tea bag on one end on a plate or other nonflammable surface
- Using a lighter or match,light the top of the tea bag.
- Watch the flame travel down from the top of the bag until…
- It flies! Be careful of ashes falling down. We had
- a great time trying to catch our ghost on the plate!
saywhatmomma 