Flying with party balloons.

[tell-me-more]

How many balloons would I need to attach to myself to:

a) feel weightless

b) really start to get up in the air?

I weight about 11 and a half stone.

[sddsddean]

OK, 1 cubic foot of helium will lift 28.2 grams.
Lets say a balloon is 12" diameter, so it has a volume of .524 cubic feet. This gives a lift of .524 x 28.2 = 14.77 grams per balloon. Lets allow 4.77 grams for the weight of the balloon and string. This gives 10 grams of lift per balloon. If you weigh 11 1/2 stone, that is 161 lbs = 73kg=73000grams. So you would need 7300 balloons to be 'weightless' and 7301 to have a net lift of 10 grams...unless I've got my maths wrong!!!
If you wanted one big balloon, lets allow 7 lbs for the balloon, so you want the volume to lift 12 st = 168lbs = 76.2kg=76200grams.
76200/28.2 = 2702 cu ft. This leads to a balloon 17' 4" in diameter.

[mibn2cweus]

In all the excitement don't forget to count

[NiceCupOfTea]

Hasn't someone just done this recently, i.e. buoyed themselves up above the ground, and actually survived?

[jno]

http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=3365726

[NiceCupOfTea]

Thank you! What a guy - the flyer I mean. And you too of course.

[miles488]

there's a guy who did this in the states - attached ballons to his lawn chair and floated off across the city and they made a film about his story too! would love to see it but can't remember the name of it so if anyone knows out there maybe we can kill two birds with one stone? o yah - and they arrested the guy when he came down. =(