{"id":68389,"date":"2026-10-13T04:46:26","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T19:46:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phys-edu.net\/wp\/?p=68389"},"modified":"2026-10-12T18:50:35","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T09:50:35","slug":"experiment-what-happens-when-you-take-a-bag-of-potato-chips-up-a-mountain-almost-bursting-at-2237-m-the-mystery-of-air-pressure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/phys-edu.net\/wp\/?p=68389&lang=en","title":{"rendered":"Experiment! What Happens When You Take a Bag of Potato Chips Up a Mountain? Almost Bursting at 2,237 m?! (The Mystery of Air Pressure)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi, I’m Ken Kuwako, your Science Trainer. Every day is an experiment!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I pulled a bag of potato chips out of my backpack on a mountaintop at 2,237 meters, and it was puffed up like a balloon. It looked perfectly normal when I bought it at the supermarket down below. So what happened? And the setting was just as strange: Tsuboniwa in the northern Yatsugatake range, a garden strewn with lumps of lava.<\/p>\n

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Taking a Bag of Chips Up to Tsuboniwa, 2,237 m Above Sea Level<\/h3>\n

I recently visited Tsuboniwa in the northern Yatsugatake mountains, which sits at an elevation of 2,237 meters. To get there, I rode the Kitayatsugatake Ropeway<\/a>, which whisks you from the base station at 1,771 meters up to the summit station in about 7 minutes.<\/p>\n

For the experiment, I brought along a bag of potato chips I’d bought at a supermarket in Tokyo (only a few meters above sea level). The question: would it puff up on the mountain?<\/p>\n

The Results! The Bag Was Puffed Up Almost to the Bursting Point<\/h3>\n

And the verdict is… it swelled up so much that it looked ready to burst! I’m thrilled!<\/p>\n