Tuesday 19 January 2010

Helium Lift Ratio

I've been doing a lot of research on how to calculate the amount of lift from a helium balloon. It's not been easy!! Everything is in different units of weight and liquid that I find it confusing. But I eventually found research at http://www.cockeyed.com/science/helium/helium.shtml where the researcher done a proper experiment working out the displacement of water to calculate how much lift helium gives.

It works out to be 8.3 grams of lift per 8.2 litres of helium.

Another study on another site claim that a 14" balloon can produce a lift of 0.8oz (22.6796grams).

If this is correct, then I would require 6 14" balloons of helium to lift my camera. From previous testing I don't believe that this would be enough helium. But if this was to be correct, I would also have to take into consideration the weight of the balloons and the rope. To counter act this I would require another couple of balloons.

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