Balloon Buoyancy - What makes balloons float?

How do different air pressures effect how a balloon reacts? Does it matter what the balloon is filled with? Find out here!

License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA

[CaptWesStarwind]

I am a balloon and I approve this message.

[ccb]

"The buoyancy force-- the same force responsible for keeping boats from sinking, and duckies from drowning!

10/10

[mrsmeredithking]

My 6 year old asked why balloons float. I GTS and found your video. That was great! Thanks!

[TimothyGSassen]

This is an exceptionally clear explanation. Well done!

[mohamadmoradi]

Thank you very much, I watched a lot of videos, I read a lot, you gave the best explanation.

[Tom]

No balloons were Harmed in the making of this video

[Reggietyler]

I Appreciate yaw for this video. Yaw out there ending arguments... Thank You!

[PaulTheSkeptic]

So does that mean that a long balloon will have more lift than a short balloon that contains the same amount of helium? Because there's a higher pressure differential from top to bottom. But then it would also have to have similar surface area and you can't do that if the balloons are equal. Okay, so instead of that, you arrange a sequence of balloons in a vertical line and another in a horizontal line. Theoretically, the vertical balloons should create slightly more lift. Anyone know if that's true?

[ronalddump]

This lady could do a WAY better job explaining why objects immersed in a fluid become lighter. And when she does, if she ever uses the phrase "buoyant force", she has failed.

[GonzaloInfante]

So you gave a reason for each case... which in turn could be applied for the opposite case.
Does the pressure imbalance not affect the air filled baloon?
Does Newton's first law not apply to the hellium filled baloon?

[falsebanneduser]

Why does a bubble at the bottom of a container filled with water rise

[mathfun]

What, if two ballons of different volumes filled with helium gas is freed from the same hight at the same time?

I'm searching for this as north on youtube and net but I don't found any source. My guess is, If the buoyancy force is proportional to the air dissipated, the ballons will get different accelerations and will reach different points in time. However, in other side if occurs the same acceleration, they will reach the same points in time, and the buoyancy force is myth (in helium case). What about MIT team?

[john-paulmead]

When the box was open it had atmospheric gradient pressure in the direct from down to up by scalar which is a vector. Higher density below and less density above makes the balloon rise. When you close the box there is still only atmospheric gradient pressure inside. We can see this because density below is still pushing it up and keeping the string tight so there must be buoyancy still applied die to less pressure above. So then this cannot be air pressure inside because the container isn't air tight for 1 and 2 the air pressure gauge reading on the box would read zero until we pumped air into the box which would need to be air tight to create air pressure. If the air pressure guage reads zero then you have none. Air pressure and atmospheric pressure are read with the same device except atmospheric pressure zero on the guage starts from vacuum. This guage reads 14.7 pounds per square inch at sea level in our atmosphere. This is where zero is put on the guage for air pressure.

If you have air pressure which would have equalized pressure throughout the container then the balloon would fall to the ground. There would be no lift because there is no lower density above to below. There would be an equal amount of atoms hitting the balloon from all directions making any directional movement from them zero each other out in all directions. Gravity will take over the weight of the balloon and helium with zero lift would pull it down . Stating the box has air pressure inside is wrong !

If we have a flat tyre then it still has air inside just not at the bottom. It has atmospheric gradient air inside. When we put the compressor guage line onto the valve it will read zero, no air pressure at all. Only after pumping in air will the guage go up. We would need to pump over 1/3 of the volume of space available while flat of air inside before the guage would start to read because this is the amount of air missing from the enclosed system of atmospheric pressure. Once we get 1/3 in does the pressure go up and the tyre start to push the car up.

[sef]

Would this work on the space shuttle tho inside the pressurized cabin

[salomon]

So, what do you make of this flat earth movement, science Girl? Have you ever seen the curve?

[viktorvasilik]

So why doesn't the balloon that is filled with air ride up as the helium balloon?

[dragontoons]

I hate science, I hate math....I hate school

[nasomty]

then u do have very low pressure inside which is vacuum .. just like the helium ballon ..
and will move typically like helium ballon because of the moving air particles from high to low ..
hmm that's what I know and hoping that I was helpful :)

[nitro]

what if instead of helium inside of a balloon, there was a vacuum? (assuming of course that the vacuum's rigid "balloon" was very strong and very light) Would the balloon act as a helium balloon and rise? or would it drift to the ground under very lightweight weight of the rigid balloon? I have wondered this.

[CosmicEpiphany]

Why doesn't the ballon filled with air also move forward then?