There’s some neat science behind making a balloon fly with a hair dryer, whether the push of the air on the balloon that directs it up, or using “fins” to catch the air and make the balloon hover and spin. But truth be told, Travis and I went light on the science this morning, and more just had fun because, well, balloons + hair dryers = excitement!

Travis was stoked when he saw me pull out the hair dryer for an experiment. After I inflated two balloons, he just liked scooting them along the floor with a flow of air.

Meanwhile, I rolled two pieces of construction paper into tubes, securing with tape. Cut the bottom into fringe and then tape onto the balloons. These will act as weights for the balloons.

If you want the balloon to spin as well as fly, you’ll need to add fins. Cut strips of construction paper, then fold in half. Bend the ends, so they make little tabs.

If you’re going for exact science, you’ll need to wind string around the center of the balloon to mark the equator, then draw two meridians (the horizontal and vertical lines that intersect the equator) with a sharpie. Glue your fins along this equator at a 45 degree angle.

Well, we weren’t that exact. We just used double-sided tape to add the fins in a circle roughly near the balloon’s center.

So… it wasn’t perfect, but it did get some spin and some air. It was unfortunately difficult to hold the camera and the hair dryer and launch the balloon, so we never got great photos or videos.

But we did have fun!