This past Labor day weekend, we went to see hot air balloon at Colorado Springs. They did mass ascension at around 7 from Memorial Park, Co Springs. The view were spectacular. We saw about a total of 80 balloons. Two of them have odd shape like a smiley sun shape and a fish while most of them are round balloon shape.
Of course my curios daughter asked me how did they fly? I got an aha moment to use this opportunity to talk about a little science about it. We saw a balloon started from a flat shape. Then the pilot blew air with a big fan until it formed flat balloon shape. Then, he started heating the air. Hot air is lighter than cold air... So when he heated the air, the hot air will go up up. Since the balloon was holding all the hot air, it will eventually lift the balloon up.
If you see at the picture, the balloon is so much bigger than the basket itself. My daughter didn't like to hear the noise when the pilot was heating the air but she's surely enjoy to see a lot of balloon goes up in a cool morning at Colorado Springs.
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