How high does a helium balloon fly?
By engineous
@engineous (396)
Australia
2 responses
@Vladilyich1 (1454)
• Canada
10 Jul 08
Basically it will rise to the top of the stratosphere where it runs out of air to be lighter than. Don't forget, as the air gets thinner, the helium (and thus the balloon) will expand. Unless it's a huge balloon, chances are it will burst before it reaches maximum altitude.
2 people like this
@danishcanadian (28953)
• Canada
11 Jul 08
Walker!!
If the guy in the deck chair had used enough balloons, could he have gotten that high?
@Vladilyich1 (1454)
• Canada
11 Jul 08
No. He had the balance really set well. A rubber balloon like that would have burst around 5,000 feet. If you've ever seen any old military films about the experiments before space travel, they would send men up in helium balloons and a sealed pod to the "edge of space". These balloons were huge -- several hundred feet. they were only filled about 10% to allow for the expansion as they rose.
@Vladilyich1 (1454)
• Canada
11 Jul 08
I meant to add that, when I was teaching SCUBA, one of the first things I would demonstrate to a class is why you don't hold your breath when surfacing.
I'd take a balloon down to the bottom of a 15-foot pool and blow it all the way up. It would explode when I was within 5 feet of the surface. That would happen to your lungs. That's called Boyle's Law in physics.
@danishcanadian (28953)
• Canada
10 Jul 08
I hink it is probably able to go aboe the clouds. Did you ear the stories of the guy who rode a couple of hundred miles beause of hellium balloons tied to a deck chair? That could be interesting. My husband said that he could have gone pretty igh if he wanted to.
