Watermelon explosion

We sent the watermelon flying!

Safe­ty pre­cau­tions

At­ten­tion! All ex­per­i­ments are per­formed by pro­fes­sion­als. Do not at­tempt.

Equip­ment

  • wa­ter­mel­on;
  • rub­ber bands;
  • bowl.

Step-by-step in­struc­tions

Set a wa­ter­mel­on in a bowl and start putting rub­ber bands on it. Af­ter a while, the wa­ter­mel­on will be­gin to change shape – then it will burst!

Process de­scrip­tion

A stretched rub­ber band strives to re­turn to its un­stretched state, so each rub­ber band tries to squeeze the wa­ter­mel­on rind. With each new rub­ber band, the com­pres­sive force act­ing on the wa­ter­mel­on in­creas­es, lead­ing to a grad­u­al change in the shape of the wa­ter­mel­on. The wa­ter­mel­on rind re­sists de­for­ma­tion un­til it cracks sharply, re­leas­ing the pulp, which flies in all dif­fer­ent di­rec­tions – and the rub­ber bands emerge vic­to­ri­ous!

Ex­cit­ing and safe ex­per­i­ments await you in the MEL Sci­ence sub­scrip­tion!

Try it