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6-year-old Colorado boy floats away in balloon


tjmagneto

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That balloon isn't big enough to lift even a child surely? I cubic meter of Helium only provides enough force to lift about a kilo. It's only about 20 feet long...

 

Anyone who knows math or Physics care to work it out?

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That balloon isn't big enough to lift even a child surely? I cubic meter of Helium only provides enough force to lift about a kilo. It's only about 20 feet long...

 

Anyone who knows math or Physics care to work it out?

 

HowStuffWorks approximates the lifting capacity of helium to be about 28 grams per cubic foot.

 

http://science.howstuffworks.com/helium2.htm

 

 

If we approximate the volume as an ellipsoid, I'd guess somewhere between 2000 and 3000 cubic feet (using a length of 20' and a height of 5' with the width approximately somewhere between 5 and 7')

 

56000 grams (2000 cubic feet) is ~ 123 lbs lifting capacity, 84000 grams (3000 cubic feet) is ~ 185 lbs capacity.

 

Using a very quick look (and info on the web), I'd say...yes, it could carry a 6 year old.

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Well, it's probably just about possible, the average six year old weighs under 25kg, and it in theory could lift that much. Depends on how far it was filled up i suppose, but factoring in the weight of the materials, I'd say it's unlikely it would have lifted off.

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Well, it's probably just about possible, the average six year old weighs under 25kg, and it in theory could lift that much. Depends on how far it was filled up i suppose, but factoring in the weight of the materials, I'd say it's unlikely it would have lifted off.

Not to mention, this was in America...so it's quite possible the kid weighed more than 185lbs ;):lol:

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