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Have you ever dreamed of being carried away by a bunch of helium balloons?
Just a few weeks ago on Sunday, October 28, 2001, British balloon enthusiast
Ian Ashpole did just that. In fact, Ian broke his own altitude record
by soaring to a height of 11,000 feet using 600 three-foot party balloons
(the kind you see at grand opening celebrations). Use the following
websites and your knowledge of physics to answer the following questions:
What is the minimum number of 3-foot diameter balloons needed to lift Ian
off the ground? How many tanks of helium were required to fill these balloons?
(Hint: A typical helium tank is 22 cm in diameter, 1.2 m tall, and can
be filled to a pressure of 3000 psi.) Estimate the time it took Ian to
reach his final height of 11,000 feet; would he have had enough time to
eat lunch on the way up? What happens to a latex balloon as it goes higher,
and how does this limit the maximum height that a person can reach by "cluster
ballooning"? What suggestions would you offer to Ian for his next attempt
at breaking his altitude record?
Note: Up to an altitude of 11 km, the temperature of the air
decreases 6.5 oC/km, and the atmospheric pressure can be found
from P = Po(288/T)^-5.26, where T is the temperature in K at the given
altitude.
BBC
News story about Ian Ashpole's altitude record with party balloons
Website on cluster
ballooning