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More Richard Hammond's Blast Lab
Mini Science @ Home - Suckeroo
A Mini Miss Suckeroo

Try your hand at making your very own Mini Miss Suckeroo.

Suckeroo

What to do:

  1. Place both plungers on a table with the cups of the plungers facing each other.
  2. Match up the edges of each cup so that they are in line with each other and press the plungers together so they make a ball shape.
  3. Firmly squeeze the two cups together, making sure you squash as much air out of them as you can.
  4. Now, with you holding the handle of one plunger and your friend holding the handle of the other, try and pull the plungers apart.
  5. The plungers should be very difficult to pull apart, but be careful not to fall over if they do.Objects held up by plungers

The Science

Here, our two plungers are held together with just the air around them - there's no glue at all!

When you push the plungers together you squash them a little and this squeezes out the air that's between them. When you let go they return to the larger size they started at. This means that the small amount of air that is inside them has to spread out more to fill this space. All of this means that this air inside the plungers is at a lower pressure than the air on the outside of the plungers.

So, now the air on the outside can then push against the plungers keeping them together.

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You Will Need

  • 2 clean plungers - the ones you use to unblock drains (the old fashioned ones work best, with a rubber cup and wooden handle)
  • A friend

Safety

Make sure when you try to pull the plungers apart that you do this in a clear space away from any other objects. And be careful, as we don't want you falling over when they do finally pop apart!

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