An Inadvertent Experiment
In my home state of Colorado, there is an experiment that hikers do inadvertently almost every time they climb to the top of a mountain – they finish and seal the water bottle they were drinking – trapping a bottle of low-pressure air inside. Then, when they bring it back down off the mountain, the higher pressure of the lower altitude air compresses the bottle until the inside and outside pressures equalize. The result is that their water bottle looks like someone squished it and then put the lid back on.
When I teach chemistry, I share bottles I have collected on the tops of several 14,000-foot peaks to show the difference in air pressure between the mountaintops and my school, which sits at an altitude of about 5,400 feet above sea level.
Curious Students Propose an Experiment to take to Siberian Sea Level
In discussing air pressure with a group of curious young science students at the INSIDE/OUT summer school earlier this week, we came up with an experiment to take to Siberia. What would happen if I bring one of these bottles filled with air at the top of Mt. Evans, a 14, 265 foot peak just east of Denver, down to actual sea level in Cherskiy, Siberia?
So, I went to the top of Mount Evans and filled an “empty” water bottle with the rarefied air at this high altitude. Though it was cold and extremely windy, the sun was out and it was a beautiful day with spectacular views – the perfect day for a science experiment.
Mark collects a bottle filled with the rarefied air on top of Mt. Evans, Colorado, at 14,265 feet above sea level.
After returning to my home near Denver at an altitude of 5800 feet, the bottle had already been compressed to look like the photo below.
The bottle on the left contains the air collected on top of Mt. Evans. You can see that it has already been compressed significantly by the higher air pressure at an altitude of only 5800 feet. The bottle on the right demonstrates the volume the bottle had at the top of Mt. Evans.
So What’s Next with the Experiment?
To finish the experiment, I have sealed the bottle with duct tape and will bring it to Siberia to see how much more it will compress at the lower altitude of essentially sea level. Although there are many other factors that influence the air pressure on a given day (such as temperature and fluctuations in barometric pressure due to weather patterns), this promises to be an interesting investigation!
Stay curious my friends! - Mark Paricio