Today we have yet another high-speed video of a water balloon serving its purpose in life.
Materials
A helium balloon filled with water
The standard fare of background materials.
Procedure
Instead of a vertical drop I thought a toss from the side would be interesting.
Result
I do so love it when water balloons distort themselves for our viewing pleasure. This one certainly did not disappoint in that regard. The water balloon can be seen undulating in a very odd fashion prior to its equally odd compression and explosion. The manner in which it hits the ground and compresses creates some very interesting shapes. In particular when it first hits and the top of the balloon (the first part to impact the ground) creates a shape that resembles the crown shape we see on water splashes. This is an excellent candidate for stepping through a frame at a time.
A particularly neat method of destroying a balloon just came to me: slice it in half with a large cleaver. It could be fascinating to see the impact and destruction of such an object with the element of forced bisecting involved.
On that same tangent, hitting a water balloon with a baseball bat. Any other similar blunt object – a golf club, another water balloon impact or even a foot could be equally photogenic. Capturing the incident on film could be tricky if you attempt to do it in air, so some thought needs to go into the mechanics of any such shot.
It could also be great for any of those shots (except the cleaver/sword/machete) to not pop the water ballon. Perhaps my favorite video on this site is this one:
The undulations involved in the balloon not breaking are so beautiful. To me is is particularly striking because of the lighting and color of the balloon; it is just stunning.
Stumble it!
A particularly neat method of destroying a balloon just came to me: slice it in half with a large cleaver. It could be fascinating to see the impact and destruction of such an object with the element of forced bisecting involved.
On that same tangent, hitting a water balloon with a baseball bat. Any other similar blunt object – a golf club, another water balloon impact or even a foot could be equally photogenic. Capturing the incident on film could be tricky if you attempt to do it in air, so some thought needs to go into the mechanics of any such shot.
It could also be great for any of those shots (except the cleaver/sword/machete) to not pop the water ballon. Perhaps my favorite video on this site is this one:
http://www.lucidmovement.com/?p=36
The undulations involved in the balloon not breaking are so beautiful. To me is is particularly striking because of the lighting and color of the balloon; it is just stunning.