Making sugar granules dance!

This simple experiment making sugar granules dance using vibrations from sound waves was so much fun to do with my 4yo. I told him that he could make sugar granules dance by speaking loudly at them and he was very eager to give it a go. We used a balloon cut down the middle, a glass, an elastic band and some granulated sugar. We stretched the balloon over the rim of the glass so that it was taut and held it in place with an elastic band. Then put some sugar granules on top.

Next came the fun part – speaking loudly at the sugar granules! And they dutifully danced! My son was amazed.

The science behind it…

Sound waves hitting the rubber cause it to vibrate which make the sugar granules move up and down. The louder the sound, the greater the vibration and the more they dance!