Eli5 why balloons pop in grass
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Because it’s sharp? They’re called *blades* of grass for a reason.
Do they? I never noticed.
Still a baloon popping is simply the rubber material breaking in a point, and consequently being ripped off by the internal stresses.
How do you break a material? By applying enough *pressure*: this means force/surface.
A blade of grass has a very small surface, if you consider the sides. This means that even small forces might result in big enough pressures.
This is in general how any blade works, being sharp means being very thin, this way any force applied results in very big pressures applied.
>For example try to tear a paper sheet with an hammer, no matter how strong you slam, you won’t rip it. Go with a nail or a pin, you will easily pierce it with little effort
Also, for the matter of the baloon, consider that amist the grass there might be sharper stuff, like small wood splinters, insects’ stingers, debris…
Grass has a bunch of sharp needles on it called tricromes. These needles are meant to stop pests, and some species have bigger needles to stop bigger animals. Corn is a type of grass. Try running your hand along some corn and you come away with a bunch of tiny cuts.
The grass we grow on our lawns has much tinier needles that cant cut us, but they’re still there. Maybe a single needle is unlikely to poke through the balloon, but each blade of grass has thousands of needles, and only a single one needs to be successful to pop it.
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