Eli5…Why do balloons make sound when they pop?
In: 1
Because the inside of a balloon isn’t at the same pressure as the outside air – it’s at a higher pressure! This is because the balloon is pushing on the air and compressing it just slightly. When the balloon pops, you basically get a shockwave coming out from where the balloon *used* to be as the air inside equalises with the outside pressure – which sounds like a pop!
The same reason a bomb does. They produce a pressure wave when they pop as the air inside the balloon rapidly escapes, and we hear this as a pop.
Sound is really pressure waves in air,
which means that the molecules are denser in some regions of the air than others, and that these high-pressure regions move as a wave. Your ears detect such waves. A balloon collapses when the internal pressure becomes to great and the internal pressure then starts a wave that moves outward.
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