Best classroom and real-world examples of Bernoulli's principle experiment

Hands-on examples of Bernoulli’s principle experiment you can do in minutes

Let’s start with the fun part: actual setups you can run on a lab bench or kitchen table. These are the best examples of Bernoulli’s principle experiment for introducing the concept because they’re visual, cheap, and easy to repeat.

Paper strip lift: the simplest example of Bernoulli’s principle

Take a strip of printer paper, about 1–2 inches wide and 8–11 inches long. Hold one end to your lower lip so the rest of the strip hangs down and curves slightly over your fingers.

Now blow steadily over the top surface of the paper. Instead of blowing it downward, the paper rises.

What’s going on?

• Fast-moving air over the top of the strip has lower static pressure than the slower air underneath.
• The higher pressure below pushes the paper upward, giving you a simple example of Bernoulli’s principle in action.

To push this beyond a party trick, have students:

• Vary blowing speed and estimate airflow using a cheap anemometer.
• Record the lift height and relate it qualitatively to speed.
• Compare with a paper strip that’s stiffer or heavier.

This is one of the cleanest examples of Bernoulli’s principle experiment to introduce the pressure–velocity relationship before touching equations.

Ping-pong ball in a hair dryer: stable levitation

Plug in a hair dryer, aim it straight up, and place a ping-pong ball in the rising air stream. The ball hovers in midair. Tilt the dryer a bit; the ball often stays trapped in the flow instead of falling.

Why this works:

• The fast air stream around the ball has lower pressure than the slower air outside the stream.
• If the ball drifts sideways, higher pressure on the outside pushes it back toward the low-pressure region.

For a more structured example of Bernoulli’s principle experiment:

• Measure the height of the hovering ball at low, medium, and high blower settings.
• Swap in balls of different mass or diameter (table tennis vs. lightweight plastic ball) and compare behavior.
• Discuss how this resembles airflow around a wing or a baseball with spin.

Two suspended balls: attraction by low pressure

Hang two ping-pong balls from a support so they swing freely and sit about 1–2 inches apart. Blow air between them with a straw or a narrow jet.

Instead of moving apart, the balls swing toward each other.

Interpretation:

• Air between the balls speeds up, lowering the pressure in that region.
• Higher pressure on the outer sides pushes the balls inward.

This is one of the clearest examples of how Bernoulli’s principle can produce counterintuitive motion and is a nice bridge to discussions about how wings generate lift and why two passing ships can be drawn toward each other.

Curved paper “wing” over a book: building a mini airfoil

Rest a book on a table and tape a sheet of paper so it forms a gentle curve from the front edge of the book to the table on the far side, like a very shallow tunnel. Leave the sides open.

Blow air through the tunnel from the front. You’ll see the paper arch upward more as the air speeds up beneath it.

Here, the fast air between the book and the paper has lower pressure than the still air above, so the paper is pushed downward toward the book. To students watching from the side, it looks like the paper is being pulled down by the air.

Reverse the setup: curve the paper above the book like a wing, then blow air over the top. The paper wing rises. This is one of the best examples of Bernoulli’s principle experiment to connect directly to airplane wings.

You can extend this into a quantitative lab:

• Mark deflection of the paper at different airflow speeds.
• Change curvature and compare lift.
• Discuss why real aerodynamics also requires Newton’s laws and circulation, not just a one-line Bernoulli explanation.

For deeper reading on lift and misconceptions, NASA’s Glenn Research Center has accessible material on Bernoulli and airfoils: https://www.grc.nasa.gov.

Bottle and straw sprayer: a DIY atomizer

Fill a plastic bottle halfway with water. Insert a straw vertically through a hole in the cap so its bottom end is submerged and its top end sticks out. Now blow a horizontal jet of air across the top of the straw using another straw or a piece of tubing.

Water sprays out as a fine mist.

Why this is a powerful example of Bernoulli’s principle experiment:

• Fast air across the top of the vertical straw lowers the pressure there.
• Higher pressure inside the bottle pushes water up the straw.
• As water emerges into the fast air stream, it breaks into droplets.

This setup mirrors how perfume atomizers, paint sprayers, and some carburetors work. It’s one of the best real-world examples of Bernoulli-based devices that students will recognize.

Venturi tube with manometer: measuring pressure drop

If you want a more formal lab, a Venturi tube is the gold standard example of Bernoulli’s principle experiment used in engineering.

You run water or air through a tube with a narrow “throat” section. Pressure taps before and at the throat connect to a U-tube manometer filled with colored water.

What you see:

• Fluid speeds up as it passes through the narrower section.
• The manometer shows a lower pressure at the throat compared to the wider section.

Students can:

• Measure flow rates and pressure differences.
• Test Bernoulli’s equation quantitatively.
• See how Venturi meters are used in industry to measure flow.

This is exactly the kind of setup discussed in many university fluid mechanics courses and is a classic example of how Bernoulli’s principle is used in real engineering practice.

Roofs, storms, and Bernoulli: a large-scale real example

You’ve probably seen photos after a storm where roofs have been peeled off houses. While the full story involves wind direction, uplift forces, and building design, Bernoulli’s principle plays a role.

When strong winds blow over a roof, air speeds up above the surface. The faster air above can have lower pressure than the air inside the house. The higher indoor pressure can then push upward on the roof.

This is a large-scale example of Bernoulli’s principle experiment supplied by nature, and it’s a compelling way to connect classroom demos to real damage patterns seen in hurricanes and tornadoes.

For a data-driven angle, students can look at guidance from agencies like the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) on wind loads and building performance: https://www.nist.gov.

Sports: curveballs, soccer bends, and lift on spinning balls

Sports provide some of the most memorable real examples of Bernoulli’s principle.

Consider a spinning soccer ball kicked with “bend.” On one side of the ball, the surface spin and airflow move in the same direction, speeding up the air. On the opposite side, they move against each other, slowing the air.

Result:

• Faster air → lower pressure.
• Slower air → higher pressure.
• The ball curves toward the low-pressure side.

The same logic applies to baseball curveballs and topspin in tennis. While the full explanation involves the Magnus effect, Bernoulli’s principle is part of the story and gives students an intuitive handle on why the ball doesn’t just travel in a straight line.

In class, you can:

• Record video of kicked balls or pitched baseballs and track their curved trajectories.
• Discuss how airspeed and spin change the degree of curvature.

This turns sports into a living example of Bernoulli’s principle experiment that students can bring from the field back into the lab.

Modern real-world examples of Bernoulli’s principle in 2024–2025

The theory hasn’t changed, but how we use it has. Recent years have pushed airflow and pressure into the spotlight in some very practical ways.

Ventilation, indoor air quality, and airflow studies

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s been a surge of research into how air moves in classrooms, offices, and hospitals. Many of these studies use the same physics that underpins basic examples of Bernoulli’s principle experiment: faster air in ducts and vents corresponds to lower static pressure, which affects how fresh air is drawn in and stale air is exhausted.

Engineering teams now routinely model building airflow using Bernoulli’s principle and related equations to:

• Improve ventilation in schools and public buildings.
• Reduce stagnant zones where aerosols can accumulate.
• Optimize placement of inlets, outlets, and filters.

For students, this is a timely real example: the same principle that lifts a paper strip also helps determine where to put an air purifier in a classroom.

For accessible reading on ventilation and airflow from a public-health perspective, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has resources at https://www.epa.gov/indoor-air-quality-iaq.

Medical devices: oxygen masks and nebulizers

Many respiratory devices rely on Bernoulli-style pressure drops to mix air and medication.

In a typical nebulizer used for asthma treatment:

• Oxygen or air flows rapidly through a narrow section.
• The high-speed flow produces a low-pressure region.
• Liquid medication is drawn up a small tube and atomized into a fine mist.

This is essentially the same physics as the classroom bottle-and-straw sprayer, but with much higher stakes. It’s a powerful example of how a basic Bernoulli’s principle experiment scales up into life-saving technology.

Students interested in medical applications can explore basic overviews of nebulizers and respiratory devices through educational pages from institutions like the National Institutes of Health: https://www.nih.gov.

Drones and small aircraft: updated aviation examples

Commercial aviation has used Bernoulli-informed wing design for decades, but the explosion of drones and small unmanned aircraft since 2020 gives you fresh examples of Bernoulli’s principle experiment in everyday life.

Quadcopters and small fixed-wing drones rely on:

• Pressure differences above and below rotor blades or wings.
• Careful shaping of airfoils to control lift and drag.

In class, you can:

• Use a toy drone and a handheld anemometer to map airspeed under the rotors.
• Discuss how faster air below the rotors contributes to pressure differences and lift.

This connects the paper-wing experiment directly to the flying gadgets students see at parks and in YouTube videos.

How to frame the best examples of Bernoulli’s principle experiment in a lab report

If you’re assigning a lab or writing one up yourself, it helps to frame these examples of Bernoulli’s principle experiment in a way that goes beyond “air goes fast, pressure goes down.” A solid report usually hits:

1. Clear objective
State exactly what your example of an experiment is trying to show. For instance: “To demonstrate the relationship between fluid speed and pressure using a Venturi tube” or “To observe lift generated by airflow over a curved surface using a paper wing.”

2. Variables you can actually measure
Even simple setups can be quantified:

• Height of a levitating ping-pong ball vs. dryer setting.
• Angle or deflection of a paper strip vs. airflow speed.
• Manometer height difference vs. flow rate in a Venturi tube.

3. Link to Bernoulli’s equation
For students ready for math, relate observations to the simplified Bernoulli equation along a streamline:

\(P + \tfrac{1}{2} \rho v^2 + \rho g h = \text{constant}\)

You don’t need to solve it fully to make the point that when velocity \(v\) increases, static pressure \(P\) tends to decrease, assuming height \(h\) stays the same.

4. Limitations and misconceptions
Good reports acknowledge that:

• Real flows have viscosity and turbulence.
• Not all lift can be explained by a cartoon of “air going faster over the top.”
• Some everyday examples of Bernoulli’s principle are oversimplified.

For more advanced students, pointing them toward university fluid mechanics notes on Bernoulli’s equation—such as those from MIT OpenCourseWare or similar .edu sources—helps anchor the experiments in real engineering practice.

FAQ: common questions about examples of Bernoulli’s principle

Q: What are some easy classroom examples of Bernoulli’s principle experiment?
Simple options include blowing over a paper strip to make it rise, levitating a ping-pong ball in a hair dryer stream, drawing two hanging balls together by blowing between them, and using a bottle-and-straw sprayer to atomize water. These are all low-cost examples of Bernoulli’s principle experiment that can be done with basic supplies.

Q: Which example of Bernoulli’s principle is best for connecting to airplanes?
The curved paper wing over a book is one of the best examples. Blowing over the curved surface to generate lift mimics how an airfoil creates a pressure difference between upper and lower surfaces. Pair it with real aircraft wing diagrams from trusted aerospace education sites for a stronger connection.

Q: Are the sports examples of Bernoulli’s principle accurate?
They’re a good starting point. Spinning balls in soccer, baseball, and tennis do experience pressure differences around them that help explain curved paths. However, the full story also involves the Magnus effect and detailed boundary-layer behavior, so it’s fair to say sports are a realistic but simplified example of how Bernoulli’s principle shows up in motion.

Q: Can I use Bernoulli’s principle to explain how shower curtains get sucked inward?
Partially. When hot water runs, air can speed up along the curtain, lowering pressure and letting higher-pressure air outside push it inward. But temperature, buoyancy, and room layout also matter, so it’s a messy real-world example of Bernoulli’s principle experiment where multiple effects overlap.

Q: Where can I find more detailed theory behind these examples?
For deeper reading, look at university-level resources and government or nonprofit sites focused on physics and engineering. NASA’s educational pages on aerodynamics, NIST materials on wind loads and building performance, and open course materials from major universities (for example, MIT or other .edu sites) offer reliable background on Bernoulli’s principle and fluid mechanics.