Question

A group of students is studying convection currents. They fill two identical balloons with the same amount of helium. One balloon is placed in a freezer and the other in an area with warm air. After 10 minutes, the balloons are released from a height of 1 meter. Which of the following do the students most likely observe?

Question 2 options:


The balloons rise at the same rate. Both balloons are the same size.


The ballons both rise. The cold ballon is larger than the warm balloon.


The cold balloon expands and rises. The warm balloon shrinks and sinks.


The warm balloon expands and rises. The cold balloon shrinks and sinks.

Answer 1

Correct answer is option 4(The warm balloon expands and rises. The cold balloon shrinks and sinks)

Step-by-step explanation

We know from ideal gas equation,

`PV=nRT`..................(1)

Here

P is pressure,

V is volume,

n is number of atoms in gas

R is gas constant

T is temperature

From equation 1 it is clear that volume of balloon is directly proportional to temperature. It means at constant pressure when temperature increases that time volume of the balloon will increases and when temperature decreases volume of balloon will decreases . So the volume of warm baloon will increases due to which its density increases and it can rises easity because a less dense material can easily rises in air in comparison to more dense material or gas.Therefore The cold balloon shrinks and sinks.