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Batfish · 09.05.2005, 10:59 AM

I have a non-nerdy ( :) ) note to add to this thread.
There's a show called Mythbusters on the Discovery channel here. They regularly take urban legends and myths and try to prove them wrong or right.
One urban legend is that a bundle of balloons at a fair floats a child away when they're all handed to the kid.
Mythbusters tested this by seeing how many balloons it takes to get a 40lb item off of the ground.
It took them about 3,500 balloons inflated over about 5 1/2 hours before they could get a 40lb item to lift from the ground.
They found that 10 party balloons would lift 100 grams.

What I took from the show is that helium really doesn't have as much 'lift' as we'd like to think :)

	(#12)
Batfish RC-Monster Aluminum Offline Posts: 617 Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: MA	09.05.2005, 10:59 AM I have a non-nerdy ( :) ) note to add to this thread. There's a show called Mythbusters on the Discovery channel here. They regularly take urban legends and myths and try to prove them wrong or right. One urban legend is that a bundle of balloons at a fair floats a child away when they're all handed to the kid. Mythbusters tested this by seeing how many balloons it takes to get a 40lb item off of the ground. It took them about 3,500 balloons inflated over about 5 1/2 hours before they could get a 40lb item to lift from the ground. They found that 10 party balloons would lift 100 grams. What I took from the show is that helium really doesn't have as much 'lift' as we'd like to think :) Joe Electronics run on smoke... if you let the smoke out, they stop working.