THE STUDY OF HELIUM AND BALLOONS Will Barbrey Cary Academy ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to determine how strong helium was against air and weights. Helium weighs one gram less than air therefore air is heavier than helium so things with helium in them float. The experiments in this study used helium and balloons and different kinds of weights. The experiments were done using different amounts of helium in the balloons and different amounts of air. Helium proved to be stronger and lighter than air. Helium can lift things and carry things into the air and objects with air in them just fall. INTRODUCTION The reason why balloons filled with air do not float and balloons with helium do float is very simple. Helium weighs one gram less than air. Because helium is lighter than air it floats. The world is at a national helium shortage because of the overuse of helium. Helium makes up.3% of the air around us and most of that helium in the air drifts up into space and we are not able to use it. Air is very heavy compared to helium. If there is a comparison between one gram and nothing then there is a clear difference between the two. When the demonstration was done helium represented the nothing and the weight represented the air.
MATERIALS AND METHODS The materials used in these experiments were balloons, a helium tank, buckets, tape, sharpies, string, fan, meter sticks, scissors, timers, toy car, and a scale. In the first experiment a balloon was filled completely with helium. Another balloon was filled halfway and the other half was filled with breath. Another balloon was filled 85% up with helium and 15% filled with air. The next balloon was filled three fourths up with helium and 25% filled with air. The other balloon was filled 75% up with air and one fourth filled with helium. The very last balloon was filled with no helium, just breath. Each balloon was dropped from one meter in the air. The times for each balloon to drop, was averaged out of three times dropped per balloon. In experiment two one balloon was filled completely with helium and put in front of a fan. The fan was put on different speeds. Meter sticks were put on the ground to determine the distance that the balloon traveled after being let go. The fan was put on different speeds and the balloon was put in front of the fan and was pushed out to the ceiling and then the distance was recorded. This was repeated three times per fan speed. In the third experiment dominoes were tied to the string of the balloon. The first balloon had no dominoes tied to the string but the second balloon had one domino and the third had two dominos. Each balloon was dropped from one meter and the time to drop was recorded.
Time to Drop (sec) In the fourth experiment a wooden car was weighed and the weight was recorded. A balloon was tied to the car and the car was weighed again. Two balloons were put on the car and then the car was weighed again. Three balloons were strapped to the car and the car was weighed again. In experiment five each balloon was filled with different amounts of helium and the rest of the balloon was filled with air. The time for each balloon to float was recorded in hours. In the final experiment all the balloons on the car in experiment four were timed and each hour the weight of the car was recorded to find out if the car would weigh more overtime because the balloons were slowly loosing helium. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 2 1.8 1.6 1.4 1.2 1.8.6.4.2 2 4 6 8 1 Helium Amount (percent) Figure 1: Different percentages of helium The balloon s height increased as more helium and less breath (Figure 1). Helium is meant to make the balloons float and rise in the air. Helium does this because it is lighter than air and light things will move up. A balloon filled with helium weighs a gram less than a balloon filled with air. When the breath and helium is mix then the balloon weighs slightly more than a regular helium balloon because it has breath in it also. There was a significant rise of time to drop between 5% and 75%. There was also a very slight change of drop time between % and 25%.
Time to fall (one meter) How Far The Balloons Went (cm) 3 25 2 15 1 5 off Low Medium High Fan Speed Figure 2: Fan speeds and how far the balloons went There was an extreme high on the high setting of the fan. The medium and low setting were very close together. The high setting was so far apart from the other settings because the fan would blow out more air and then the balloon would go farther because of the pressure of the wind. The data for low and medium setting are almost the same because there was not much difference between the pressure of air for medium and low. 1.4 1.2 1.8.6.4.2.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 # of dominoes Figure 3: The number of dominoes tied to a balloon and the time for the balloon to fall The more dominoes tied to the string of the balloon the less time it took to fall. The balloon took more time to fall with no dominoes because the balloon had less weight holding it down. The balloon took less time to fall with each domino because the dominoes put more weight on the string therefore weighing down the balloon and bringing down the balloon.
Floating Time (sec) Weight of car (g) 144 143 142 141 14 139 138 137 136.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 # of balloons Figure 4: Multiple balloons were tied to a toy car The weight of the car decreased and the number of balloons decreased the amount of weight of the car. The balloons decreased the weight of the car because helium weighs less than air and therefore making the car weigh less. 5 45 4 35 3 25 2 15 1 5 2 4 6 8 1 12 Helium in balloons (%) Figure 5: Floating time of balloons with different amounts of helium in them There was a huge difference between seventy five percent and one hundred percent of helium and a large difference between fifty percent and seventy five. There were very large increases in data because the balloons needed a lot of helium to float and the balloons that did not have a lot of helium in them did not float as long. The reason that balloons need helium is because helium is lighter than air and the lighter the balloon the longer it floats.
Weight of car overtime (g) 144 143 142 141 14 139 138 137 136 1 2 3 4 5 6 Time sitting (hrs) Figure 6: The more time the car sits with balloons ties to it the more it weigh The car from experiment four was set out for different amounts of hours. There was a surprisingly no change between three and four hours. After five hours there was no additional weight to the car. It was as if the balloons weren t even there. CONCLUSION In all of these experiments they proved that helium is superior in lifting things. Helium lifts balloons because helium is one gram lighter than air. This data is important because people might want to put up balloons for a birthday party and this data shows that helium is very powerful and can lift balloons better than just air. The hypothesis was correct because the hypothesis was that helium lifts up the balloons better than just air because air is heavy compared to helium. Helium is very light and therefore lifts up the balloons. Some follow up experiments for this topic might include testing what helium does to objects over time and how long different numbers of balloons take to pick something up. CITATIONS Brain, Marshall. How Helium Balloons Work HowStuffWorks. April 1, 2.15 February 213 Demand Media INC. How Does A Helium Balloon Float Cool Quiz. Demand Media INC, 21. Web. February 1, 213. Hasan, Heather. Helium. New York: Oxford UP, 26. Print.
Becker, Lewis A. Helium: Characteristics, Compounds, and Applications. Oxford: Nova Science Pub Inc. 211. Print. Landon, Davis. Helium: The Studies. Helium (21): 122 Encyclopedia of Britannica. Web. 2 January 213. Katherine, Lin. THE STUDY OF DOES THE AMOUNT OF HELIUM IN A BALLOON AFFECT HOW LONG THE BALLOON STAYS IN THE AIR. 12 January 213. Doc.