Most people who have at least once in their life launched a balloon inflated with gas into the sky, or seen others do it, are interested in the question of how far the balloon flies, what will happen to it, and where it will fall. Some even try to launch a balloon with a letter, which a person must find and forward to the recipient, so that they can find out how far the balloon flew into the sky. But think about the probability that this ball will fall in the city and that it will be found, and what is the probability that a person will want to send something to someone. Yes, the probability is very low, but we have heard real stories when balloons with letters were actually found and letters were sent to the person who released the balloon. We recommend that you read
WHAT ARE BALLOONS INFLATED INTO THE AIR?
In this case, we are only talking about small balloons that are inflated with gas and launched into the sky, and are not considering large passenger balloons that can be flown. And so, in order to launch a ball into the sky and find out how far it will fly, you need to inflate it with gas. The lightest gas will be hydrogen, but since it is very explosive, it is not used to inflate balloons. After hydrogen comes Helium gas, it does not explode, is non-toxic and has a high lifting force, which allows it to be successfully used in inflating balloons. Of course, you can inflate a balloon with gas from a home stove, but the lifting force of such a balloon will be extremely small.
WHICH BALLOONS FLY THE LONGEST
In this question we will look at two types of ball. The first balloon will be latex, inflated with helium and coated with HiFloat, which creates a film inside the balloon and does not allow helium to penetrate the latex. Without HiFloat, a latex balloon flies for approximately 12-24 hours depending on the quality of the latex and the size of the balloon. The second balloon will be foil-lined and inflated with helium. According to preliminary estimates, such a balloon flies for about 14 days, since the foil does not allow helium to pass through and does not exert pressure on the gas, unlike a latex balloon, which inflates and creates pressure. To find out how long a balloon inflated with helium flies, we conducted tests, see the results below.
What is remarkable is that a balloon inflated with helium flies very far, one might say into the stratosphere. Due to the difference in pressure at sea level (on earth) and in the stratosphere, the gas inside the latex balloon begins to press and inflate the balloon with greater force, which leads to its rupture. The approximate time for a latex ball to reach the height at which it will burst is on average 2-3 hours from the moment of launch.
Foil 18 inches Height 35, Width 35, Depth 16 cm1 day - 0 hours - 2.76 grams 1 day - 9 hours - 2.75 grams 1 day - 16 hours - 2.71 grams 1 day - 24 hours - 2.71 grams Day 2 - 32 hours - 2.70 grams Day 2 - 40 hours - 2.47 grams Day 3 - 57 hours - 2.40 grams Day 3 - 81 hours - 2.10 grams Day 4 - 104 hours - 1.90 grams Day 5 - 128 hours - 1.80 grams Day 6 - 152 hours - 1.56 grams Day 7 - 186 hours - 1.18 grams Day 8 - 200 hours - 1.05 grams Day 9 - 224 hours - 0.90 grams 10 day - 248 hours - 0.69 grams Day 11 - 272 hours - 0.48 grams Day 12 - 296 hours - 0.26 grams Day 13 - 320 hours - 0.10 grams Day 14 - 344 hours - 0.00 grams |
Latex 14 inches Height 34, Width 27, Depth 27 cm(girth 86) 1 day - 0 hours - 5.57 grams 1 day - 9 hours - 4.59 grams 1 day - 16 hours - 4.29 grams 1 day - 24 hours - 4.05 grams Day 2 - 32 hours - 3.70 grams Day 2 - 40 hours - 2.76 grams Day 3 - 57 hours - 2.20 grams Day 3 - 81 hours - 1.44 grams Day 4 - 104 hours - 0.60 grams Day 5 - 128 hours - 0.15 grams Day 6 - 152 hours - 0.00 grams Latex 18 inches Height 41, Width 40.7, Depth 40.7 cm (circumference 128 cm), 1 ball - 24.51 grams |
WHAT IS THE LOADING CAPACITY OF A BALLO INFLATED WITH GAS
To find out what the lifting capacity of one ball is, you can use the following data, where 1 m3 of helium lifts one kilogram of cargo minus the weight of the ball itself. On average, the carrying capacity of one standard balloon inflated with helium will be 3-4 grams. To find out in practice what the carrying capacity of a balloon inflated with helium is, we conducted tests; see the results above.
HOW FAR DOES A BALLON INFLATED WITH GAS FLY?
To answer the question: “How far will a balloon inflated with gas (helium) fly?”, you need to know a lot of data. The flight distance of the balloon will depend on the time during which it will fly, and on the strength of the wind that will move the ball. A lot depends on weather conditions; in a calm weather, a ball can fly for a whole month and fall at the place where it was launched, and in a strong wind it can fly very far. And so, in order to understand how far a balloon inflated with gas will fly, you need to know the time of flight of the ball and the strength of the wind. Let us assume that the wind force throughout the entire flight of the ball will be 3 meters per second, although, in fact, depending on the altitude and weather conditions during the flight of the ball, the wind force will change both up and down. Now let’s calculate: 3m/s * 60 seconds = 180 meters the ball will fly in 1 minute. 180 meters * 60 minutes = 10800 meters (10.8 km) the ball will fly in one hour. 10.8 km * 24 hours = 269 km the ball will fly in 24 hours. 269 km * 14 days = 3766 km the ball will fly in two weeks. The calculation was made on the basis that the wind will blow with a force of 3 m/s during the entire flight of the ball, but since weather conditions are always different, it is impossible to assume that the ball will fly exactly that far. In practice, the ball can land a kilometer from the launch site, or it can even circle the entire globe, because the wind strength can be different. Below you will find our practical tests to answer how far a balloon can fly when inflated with gas.
In which direction will the balloon inflated with gas fly? Of course, the ball will fly where the wind blows, but since the wind blows in different directions in different areas and at different altitudes, it is impossible to predict in which direction the ball will fly, one can only guess. See practical tests below.
ATMOSPHERE PRESSURE AT DIFFERENT HEIGHTS
As you can see from the plate, the atmospheric pressure above sea level is 760 mm. rt. Art., and at an altitude of 5 kilometers it is already 405 mm. rt. Art.. It turns out that if a ball flies to a height of five kilometers, it begins to experience pressure inside itself twice as strong as on the ground, and such a difference will most likely lead to the rupture of the ball. Therefore, if you want the ball to fly high without bursting, then you need to pump it with gas in such a way that it has a safety margin for a certain flight altitude. If you want the ball to fly far, try to inflate it with a safety margin of two times and in such a way that it flies no higher than two or three kilometers, otherwise the ball will burst and fall.
PRACTICAL TESTS OF WHERE A BALL INFLATED WITH GAS WILL FLY
How do we test? To find out practically how far a balloon inflated with helium will fly, you need to launch it and control the flight of the balloon. The hardest and most expensive part is controlling where the ball goes.
OPTION No. 1
You can control the flight of a balloon inflated with gas using a mobile phone with the option to track the location of the mobile phone enabled. It turns out that in order to conduct tests that answer the question of where and how far a balloon inflated with gas (helium) will fly, it is necessary:
- Mobile phone;
- SIM card with a positive balance;
- Connected service that determines the location of a mobile phone;
- Mobile coverage area;
- Packaging for a mobile phone so that it does not get wet in the rain
- The number of balls is sufficient to lift a mobile phone.
OPTION No. 2
In some ways it is similar to option No. 1, but instead of a mobile phone, a GPS tracker will be used with the ability to send SMS messages about your location if there is a GSM signal. This option is more expensive than the first option, but is more accurate in indicating its location.
---=== TEST RESULTS ===---
TEST #1
dated March 20, 2015
Technical data: Mobile phone weighing 61 grams, 1 latex ball 27 inches, two latex balls 18 inches and 5 latex balls 12 inches. All balloons are inflated with Helium gas and treated with HiFloat. Location requests were made every 10-20 minutes using the MTS "POISK" system. As you can see from the time and place data below, the balls were not always in touch, sometimes they did not get in touch and you had to wait a tedious 2-3 hours until the next session. We assume that at that time they were flying over a remote area where there is no mobile phone coverage. The approximate flight altitude of the balls at the time of launch is 1-2 km above sea level. It was very important that the balls did not fly to a height of 10 km or higher, since the temperature there is 50 degrees and at this altitude the pressure is much less than at sea level, which causes the latex balls to simply burst and the beacon to freeze.
Launch location: Chuvash Republic, Cheboksary city, Kalinina street, building 109. Launch time 10:20 minutes. The weather is sunny, no clouds, wind 5-7 m/s SW (which means blowing to the NE).
10:20 - Subscriber "Sharik" is located at the address Chuvash region. Cheboksary, intersection of st. Kalinina and st. Gagarin Yu. within a radius of 1000 meters.
10:41 - Subscriber "Sharik" is located at the address Chuvash region. Novocheboksarsk intersection of Shkolny Ave. and st. Soviet within a radius of 1000 meters.
11:26 - Subscriber "Sharik" is located at the address of the Republic of Mari El, Zvenigovsky district, from Kuzhmar, 48 km east of the center of Cheboksary within a radius of 1000 meters.
13:25 - Subscriber "Sharik" is located at the address of the Republic of Mari El, Mari-Tureksky district, Verkhniy Turek village, 109 km east of the center of Yoshkar-Ola within a radius of 1000 meters.
16:24 - Subscriber "Sharik" is located at the address Udmurt Republic, Igrinsky district, Komsomolets village, 76 km north of the center of Izhevsk within a radius of 1000 meters
16:38 - Subscriber "Sharik" is located at the address Udmurt Republic, Igrinsky district, village. Menil, 87 km north of the center of Izhevsk within a radius of 1000 meters.
16:53 - Subscriber "Sharik" is located at the address Udmurt Republic, Igrinsky district, Chemoshur village, 62 km north of the center of Izhevsk within a radius of 1000 meters.
17:22 - Subscriber "Sharik" is located at the address Udmurt Republic, rp Kez, 118 km north of the center of Izhevsk within a radius of 1000 meters.
18:05 - Subscriber "Sharik" is located at the address Perm region, Ochersky district, Nizovskaya, 91 km west of the center of Perm within a radius of 1000 meters.
19:49 - Subscriber "Sharik" is located at the address Perm region, Ochersky district, x Zimi, 93 km west of the center of Perm within a radius of 1000 meters.
20:27 - Subscriber "Sharik" is located at the address Perm region, Bolshesosinsky district, Yuzhny village, 97 km southwest of the center of Perm within a radius of 300 meters.
23:00 - The Sharik subscriber is in the same place as at 20:27, that is, the balls flew approximately 480 kilometers in 10 hours after launch.
TEST #2
dated April 07, 2015
Technical data: Mobile phone weighing 61 grams, 4 latex 18-inch balloons treated with HiFloat and inflated with Helium gas. Location requests were made every 10-30 minutes using the MTS "POISK" system. If during the first test we inflated the number of balls in such a way that the balls did not rise above 1-2 kilometers and did not burst from the difference in pressure, then in this test we inflated 4 balls, which lifted approximately 100 grams of weight, while lifting the mobile It was enough for the phone to inflate 3 balloons. That is, during this test the balls flew over 10 kilometers in height. The test results are roughly what we expected. The balloons flew about 100 kilometers, from the city of Ivanteevka, M.O., to the city of Egoryevsk, M.O.
Presumably the flight unfolded as follows: see below. From the data received from the mobile phone, it can be assumed that initially the ball went rapidly up and forward in the wind, reaching a great height, communication with it was lost (from 06:26 to 08:00), having reached an even greater height, one or two balls burst ( strongly inflated) due to the pressure difference and the mobile phone began to go down. The phone got in touch at 08:00 in the area of the village. Gzhel, and ultimately, it fell in the area of the village of Barsuki, Yegoryevsky district, Moscow region, and all further requests for location were issued from this area.
Launch location: Moscow region, Ivanteevka city. Start time 06:00 minutes. The weather is cloudy, wind 3-4 m/s NW (which means blowing to the SE).
06:00 - Subscriber "Sharik" is located at the address Moscow region, Ivanteevka, intersection of st. Pervomaiskaya and st. Greenhouse within a radius of 900 meters.
06:11 - Subscriber "Sharik" is located at the address Moscow region, Shchelkovsky district, Obraztsovo village within a radius of 700 meters.
06:27 - Subscriber "Sharik" is located at the address Moscow region, Shchelkovo, intersection of st. Polevaya and st. Kosmodemyanskaya within a radius of 450 meters.
- There was no contact with the ball for 1 hour 30 minutes.
08:00 - Subscriber "Sharik" is located at the address Moscow region, Ramensky district, village. Gzhel within a radius of 1800 meters.
09:00 - Subscriber "Sharik" is located at the address Moscow region, Voskresensky district, Katunino village, within a radius of 4300 meters.
10:05 - Subscriber "Sharik" is located at the address Moscow region, Egoryevsky district, Barsuki village within a radius of 7600 meters.
17:00 - Subscriber "Sharik" is in the same place where he was at 10:05.
CONCLUSIONS ABOUT THE LAUNCH OF LATEX BALLOONS
Having carried out two tests on launching a mobile phone on latex balloons, we can draw the following conclusions: if you inflate latex balloons in such a way that they do not rise above 2 kilometers in height and treat them with a special composition, then they will fly for about 10-15 hours, and the flight range will depend on the strength and direction of the wind. The approximate range will vary from 300 to 600 kilometers. You probably thought that everyone says that a latex balloon treated with a special compound flies for up to two weeks, but here it’s only 10-15 hours. Indeed, the balls fly for up to two weeks, the tests carried out above are proof of this, but they fly without a load and only support their weight. If you attach a weight, the ball will fly as long as it holds the weight of the load; calculate how much time it will take you yourself based on the percentage of the ball’s flight time and the loss of lift (see above). So, if you inflate the balloons in such a way that they lift a weight a little more than the weight of a mobile phone, then they will not fly more than 2 kilometers in height and will not burst, but they will fly no more than 10-15 hours. And if you inflate the balloons in such a way that they lift the weight of the load, at least 25 percent more than the weight of the load itself, so that the balls fly longer, then they fly high and burst, which is what happened with our second test (the weight of the mobile phone is 61 grams, the lifting force of the ball is 100 grams). At the same time, not all the balloons burst, but only those that were more heavily inflated. After which the remaining balls began to descend, so the mobile phone simply fell, but not much, since some balls supported it, and the speed of descent was low. It also follows that all the latex balls that you release into the air without a load fly over 10 kilometers in height, burst and fall.
Technical data: GSM tracker mini A8 weighing 19 grams (with moisture protection and garters 23 grams), five foil balls with a carrying capacity of 8 grams in each ball (40 grams total carrying capacity), Helium gas. Location requests were made every 10-30 minutes using the MTS "POISK" system. With such data, the balls rise over five kilometers, which means that the safety margin of each ball should have been more than three times that on the ground. This is because the difference in atmospheric pressure on the ground and in the sky is different, which means the force of gas pressure on the ball from the inside at altitude will be greater. For more details, see the pressure plate at different heights (see above). From the results obtained, it follows that the balls, having reached a certain height, began to experience gas pressure from the inside and the weakest ball burst, which led to the fact that the lifting force was no longer enough, and the tracker began to smoothly decline and fell.
Launch location: Moscow region, Ivanteevka city. Start time is 22:00. The weather is cloudy, wind 3-4 m/s SE (which means blowing to the NW).
22:00 - Subscriber "Sharik" is located at the address Moscow region, Ivanteevka, intersection of st. Pervomaiskaya and st. Greenhouse within a radius of 900 meters.
22:17 - Subscriber "Sharik" is located at the address Moscow region, Pushkinsky district, Pravdinsky village, 43 km northeast of the center of Moscow.
22:40 - Subscriber "Sharik" is located at the address Moscow region, Pushkinsky district, Nagornoye village, 49 km northeast of the center of Moscow
22:50 - Subscriber "Sharik" is located at the address Moscow region, Sergiev Posad district, Repikhovo village, 62 km northeast of the center of Moscow
23:17 - Subscriber "Sharik" is located at the address Moscow region, Sergiev Posad, intersection of st. Shlyakova and st. Stakhanovskaya
23:35 - Subscriber "Sharik" is located at the address Moscow region, Krasnozavodsk, intersection of st. 40 years of October, etc. Parkovy
00:15 - Subscriber "Sharik" is located at the address Vladimir region, Alexandrov, intersection of st. Bolshaya Petrovskaya and st. Baksheevskaya
00:39 - Subscriber "Sharik" is located at the address Yaroslavl region, Pereslavl district, Kriushkino, 110 km southwest of the center of Yaroslavl, 05/14/2015, 00:39
00:50 - Subscriber "Sharik" is located at the address Yaroslavl region, Rostov district, with Debolovskoye, 67 km southwest of the center of Yaroslavl
06:00 - Subscriber "Sharik" is located at the address Yaroslavl region, Borisoglebsky district, Nikifortsevo, 48 km southwest of the center of Yaroslavl
CONCLUSIONS ABOUT THE LAUNCH OF FOIL BALLOONS
Based on the launches of foil balloons, we can conclude that a foil balloon flies much longer in comparison with a latex balloon, but at the same time has a very small margin of safety. That is, a latex balloon has the ability to expand, that is, stretch, but a foil balloon does not have this ability. Therefore, when launching a foil balloon, the main task is to calculate the flight height of the balloon and inflate it in such a way that the balloon, having risen to a height, does not burst from the gas pressure from the inside. The risks in launching are such that if you inflate foil balloons so that they fly at an altitude of up to a kilometer, then their lifting force will be quite small and the wind will most likely blow them to the ground. If you inflate a foil balloon so that it flies at a high altitude, then you need to inflate so much gas that there is both lifting force and a safety margin remaining so that the balloons do not burst due to the difference in pressure at altitude.
Flew: (latex balloon)
- Moscow region, Ivanteevka
- Ivanovo region, Savinsky district, Fedorovo village
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TEST No. 6
Flew: (latex balloon)
- Saratov region, Romanovsky district, Alekseevsky village
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Flew: (latex)
- Moscow region, Ivanteevka
- Vologda region, Ustyuzhensky district, Zimnik village
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TEST No. 9
Flew: (latex)
- Samara Region