breathing in helium

[mollykins]

1) roughly how many breaths worth of oxygen are in your body (lungs or blood etc) at once?

2) Is the helium used to fill baloons pure helium, if not, what else is in it?

3) How come people seem to be able to breathe ok when they've inhaled helium, is it because there's oxygen in the baloons aswell perhaps?

[Old_Geezer]

I guess helium triggers the "OK" response so you don't gasp for air. But the reason you survive is that a short period without oxygen won't harm you. Longer will kill you.

[mollykins]

What about all that helium in your blood stream though, would inhaling a lot give you muscle cramp? It would diffuse into your blood stream though wouldn't it, considering they are smaller than oxygen molecules.

[ChuckFickens]

http://tinyurl.com/348p7yf

[Dris]

I so wish I could do that Chuck (seriously) although there wouldnt really be an AB if we all did suppose.
Helen -ive never tried it and I never would.I remember being told- after the event-that my daughter and her pals emptied every helium balloon at a store opening -I almost froze.
They even sell 'shots' of it in some of the more lively resorts abroad....

[jomifl]

When you feel out of breath it is because of increased levels of carbon dioxide in the blood. Breathing helium exclusively would flush out the carbon dioxide so you wouldn't feel out of breath but you would die from lack of oxygen. Helium is an inert gas so would not have any effects other than those that I have just described.(to the best of my knowledge)

[mollykins]

I can't get all of my answers from google . . .

[Dris]

Think Chuck was just funning Molly.
We all know that in reality we could google but sometimes when you post a thread you get more personal info which isnt always apparent on Google so dont worry.

[jake-the-peg]

The urge you have to breathe comes not from a lack of Oxygen but from a build up of CO2.

This is why breath holding divers do something called hyperventillation to try to lower their CO2 levels as much as possible first. (This can be dangerous).

The amount of time you have without getting fresh Oxygen into your body before you black out depends on a lot of things like the amount of activity you are doing and your body size but is generally much more than the minute of so most people can hold their breath for.

Helium is a very light gas so when you inhale it it will do it's best to get out of your mouth the moment you start to speak.

My son's Chemistry teacher once did a very dangerous demonstration breating in a very heavy gas to demonstrate how that lowered your voice.

He then had to basically turn upside down to empty his lungs of the gas.

That's a real "don't try this at home" one!

[rojash]

Dris wrote "I so wish I could do that Chuck"
Well, you can

http://tinyurl.com/2wvyuwv