Fluid Dynamics – Why Are These Balloons Attracted When Air Blows Between Them?

bernoulli-equationflowfluid dynamicspressure

There are two party air balloons pending by their own weight through strings. When we blow strongly in the pipe, they move to approximate from each other as shown in the picture.

airBalloons

It seems that the blow acts to remove some air from the central region, lowering its pressure. The same effect happens when we move a hand quickly between the balloons as we were taking away mechanically some air.

However the same happens for a continuous air blow, as shown in this video (https://youtube.com/shorts/lLqjzisgpNs), where the air comes from a nozzle below the balloons. Can we say that the continuous air blow drags some air from the central region lowering the pressure? Or there is an alternative explanation?

Sometimes effects like that are described as application of Bernoulli principle. But the equation $$p_1 + \frac{1}{2}\rho v_1^2 = p_2 + \frac{1}{2}\rho v_2^2$$ (considering the same height) comes from $$dp = -d(\frac{1}{2}\rho v^2)$$ which results from the second law of Newton applied to a fluid element. It is relevant inside our respiratory tract in the first case, where the air is being accelerated, or inside the device that accelerate the air to the nozzle in the second one. Not after them.

Best Answer

I could not make sense of what you are arguing against the use of Bernoulli's principle. It is a general ``conservation of energy" argument, and is not just limited to when the air is being accelerated. It works even when you have places where the speeds are uniform.

This attraction happens because of Bernoulli's principle. Farthest away from the flowing air, the pressure is standard air pressure, and there is no overall linear kinetic energy of the air there. Nearer the pipe and flowing air, there is overall linear kinetic energy, and so the pressure in the middle is slightly lower, and that sets up a force difference between the two sides of the balloons, leading to an appearance of attraction.

The standard symbol for density of a fluid is $\rho,$ not $\mu$

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