• dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Absolutely, but the scale of the balloons is a bit off. Nobody would be walking shoulder to shoulder like this. For a normal-ish 170lb/77kg individual your personal balloon would have to be a little under 6.5 meters across assuming it were filled with helium.

      Yes, I did the math.

      • tyler@programming.dev
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        3 months ago

        You could use hydrogen, which is less dense than helium. Then if it catches on fire like the Hindenburg you’d already be in the water.

        • perestroika@lemm.ee
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          3 months ago

          It wouldn’t help. The thing that gives you lift is the mass of displaced air. Difference from the (lack of) mass of the lifting gas is minimal.

          • tyler@programming.dev
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            3 months ago

            It would, but less than the density difference, since you’ve removed weight from the balloon thus gravity has less of a pull on the balloon. My wife (a PE in thermodynamics) was the one that verified that comment before I posted it, hence why I didn’t say it would increase lift by the difference in density.