Some of you may remember Zonah's experiments last year with a Chinese hot water bottle - blowing it up with a mouthpiece and check valve, with a mouthpiece only, and finally, attempting it with just her lips on its large nozzle. She's wanted to try it again ever since, but was particularly motivated when she came across a video on the internet with a claim she found...curious. In the video, a large muscle-man claims "it takes eight hundred pound of pressure...per square inch...to blow one of these up." Having remembered a somewhat lower number from her experiment last year, she first procee...

Some of you may remember Zonah's experiments last year with a Chinese hot water bottle - blowing it up with a mouthpiece and check valve, with a mouthpiece only, and finally, attempting it with just her lips on its large nozzle. She's wanted to try it again ever since, but was particularly motivated when she came across a video on the internet with a claim she found...curious. In the video, a large muscle-man claims "it takes eight hundred pound of pressure...per square inch...to blow one of these up." Having remembered a somewhat lower number from her experiment last year, she first proceeds to measure the pressure of a fresh out-of-the-package hot water bottle of the same make and model as the vessel shown in the video. Once that bit of "mythbusting" is out of the way, she decides to give it a try herself. With only eye and hearing protection, she finds a position for the nozzle that works for her mouth. Using every bit of air she can take into her petite but fit five-foot-zero frame, she puffs mightily, again and again. Staying focused on her breathing, she fills the rubber bottle to enormous dimensions, until she is rewarded with a deafening explosion. While she may not have produced anywhere close to 800psi, she does complete the same feat of strength shown in the video, and lives to tell about it. Once again, please do not try this at home!