Is there any alternative to using helium to make balloons float?
Answer:
Lots of things. Natural gas. Hydrogen gas. Unfortunately, they also explode or burn. There will be a party supply place that has a balloon fill tank. Welding supply places will have hellium tanks for rent with balloon inflator outlets. Just make sure you get good balloons or the He will quickly leak out. Also worked for jokers in the 60's They used Hydrogen gas in balloons and suspended Aluminum tins below the balloons and a chemical that would ignite a burning mixture. When viewed at night, caused UFO sightings to be recorded and then the fires blew up the gas in the balloons.
hydrogen gas.any gas that is less dense than air itself...
The only way to make a balloon float is to put a gas in it that is lighter than air, and thus create the buoyant force needed for it to rise. There are several other gases besides helium that are lighter than air, but all of them are either dangerous to use, very hard to get a hold of, or both. There is surely somewhere in Atlanta that has helium available for this purpose... try hobby and party stores, or perhaps large grocery stores. The grocery store I used to work in had a helium cylinder.
Nitrogen gas is SLIGHTLY less dense than air (air is 70% nitrogen, 21% oxygen), so nitrogen filled balloons might float, but it the buoyancy will be pretty pathetic. Still, it might be cheaper to find nitrogen gas than helium...
Any gas with an average molecular weight les than 29 (air) will do it. The closer to zero the more lift you get, to 1.29 g/liter. helium at 4 gives you 1.1 g/liter.
Hydrogen at 2 is flammable and explosive in air. Methane (natural gas) at 20 is flammable and explosive. It only gives you 0.4 g/liter of lift.
atlanta "party helium" 26 hits
Failing that, visit a welding shop and ask for a tank of their worst helium.
The answers post by the user, for information only, FunQA.com does not guarantee the right.
More Questions and Answers: