Can you be lifted by balloons

Helium has 0. For a one cubic foot helium filled balloon , gravity pulls the down on the helium with a force of 0. The difference in the up and down force is 0. Therefore each cubic foot of helium could lift 0. In order to lift pounds which would include the weight of your load, the balloon, and the helium you would need cubic feet of helium. This would require a balloon with about a If instead you used small spherical one foot diameter balloons which holds about 0.

Therefore a handful of small balloons will not lift you off the ground. It is possible however to lift a person as evidenced by the following story that appeared in the newspaper in A California man wanted to recline in a lawn chair about 30 feet above his back yard, buoyed up by weather balloons. When he wanted to return to the ground he planned to pop balloons one by one with a pellet gun. The poor fellow attached 45 large weather balloons to a lawn chair and inflated them with helium.

The authors found that it would take almost 10 million helium balloons to lift the small wooden house and million helium balloons to lift a typical UK house! And later claims the necessary time is two seconds. So physics labs will have to hold on to their microwave ovens! Another paper calculates just how fast an average ball point pen can write on paper and how temperature and so, geological location affects the speed achieved.

The last paper I will mention is one that had me in splits. But wait a minute, you say, bananas are not radioactive, are they? Bananas contain potassium — which has a naturally occurring radioactive isotope, potassium So no need to stop gulping down that banana smoothie in the morning just yet. For papers like these, which are probably being penned by future Ig Nobel prize winners, take a look these and other papers — they are sure to make you laugh and think!

And while it might be nearly impossible to recreate that moment in real life, lifting something lighter, such as a penguin plushie, is perfectly achievable. He helped his penguin buddy named Perri soar in the sky and become the world's first flying penguin.

Make sure to watch the footage of this feat here:. All that Perri needed were some helium balloons. How many?

Well, this is exactly what our helium balloon calculator figures out! Before we determine how many helium balloons lift a person, let's start with a bit of theory. Why do these balloons float in the first place?

It happens because they are filled with helium - a gas that is lighter than air. You probably already know the phenomenon of buoyancy. For example, an inflatable mattress floats on water, because the air it's filled with is lighter than water. The same principle applies here: as helium has a density lower than the density of air , a balloon filled with this gas will start moving up. The density of helium is equal to 0. The density of air, on the other hand, is about 1.

Leaving some tolerance for the weight of the balloon and the string, we can approximate that every liter of helium has a lifting force of one gram.

There are a few more gases that are lighter than air, such as hydrogen, ammonia, or methane. They are not commonly used in balloons as they are easily flammable. Begin typing your search term above and press enter to search. Press ESC to cancel. Skip to content Home Thanksgiving How many balloons does it take to lift a person? Ben Davis March 20, How many balloons does it take to lift a person?

How many balloons does it take to lift a house?