Does it require more heat to lift an air-filled balloon than an air-filled balloon with some mass attached?
439452
Sure it does.  If there's no mass attached, you just need enough buoyancy to lift the balloon itself.  If you have a mass attached, you have to lift them both, so you need more buoyancy.  The more buoyancy you need, the more you have to heat the balloon.
1035826
Some novelty balloon are as large a 6 foot in diameter. But we will assume that you are dealing with a 1 foot diameter 300mm balloon. \n   Also the ambient temperature plays a role so we will assume you are about halfway between equator and north pole on an average summer day say 70 degrees Celsius.\n  Wind speed we will negate, as you will pick an absolutely calm day.\n  Thus you have two fundamental forces that of gravity on the balloon. And the lift caused by a difference of atomic weight of the helium vs air. \n  Then one must run tests to determine at what circumference the novelty balloon will burst, and the air pressure at various elevations.\n  We will assume the balloon can double in volume before exploding  and that air pressure goes down geometrically as the balloon rises (this is not true by the way) (some balloon will pop before others and air pressure vary's from day to day area by area etc.)\n Using all these estimated averages I predict that your balloon will reach a height of 5 kilometers before bursting.\n  However experience in the field has shown me that they usually rise so gradually that they first develop a slow leak and then float gently back to earth as they lose their helium.\n  There they are frequently eaten by some poor animal who dies as a result of your experiment so please do not do this at home Thanx
710073
They had that on an episode of Mythbusters.  The ball travelled less further because of the decrease in mass and no change in volume.  It was more susceptible to air resistance.
629282
assuming the balloons are spherical and have no mass and the temperature is about 25 C then 418 balloon might just do it.
1003953
Well, the different between air and helium on the weight of the balloon is marginal, so you would expect little or no observable distance. \n\nBut in principle its not as simple as is being made out here. Think for a moment about what keeps a ball up and what brings it down. Its hit into the air at first, and then a combination of gravity and air resistance bring it down. \n\nIn a vacuum the trajectory would depend only on initial velocity, because kinetic energy and potential energy both depend linearly on mass (so it cancels). In air the air resistance is proportional to square of the speed and size but not mass.\n\nNow, about that kick. Does it give 1) constant energy independent of the mass of the ball, 2) constant speed to the ball independent of its mass \n\nIf 1) then the heavier ball will be slower when kicked, so will not go as far\n\nIf 2) then the distance will be the same in vacuum as above but the larger ball will have more energy and so will take longer to slow by drag - it will go further
17452
Hot air is less dense than cold air, assuming that volume is held constant, because the molecules in the heated air move more and faster than in cold air.  Think about a room filled with people.  If the people move around quickly (as molecules in heated air), then the people will spread out more and make more room between eachother (which would be lower density).  Since the hot air is less dense, and more dense objects are "more affected" by gravity, then the warm air is "lighter".
768769
If r,a are the actual and initial (when it's empty) radius, then the potential energy of the balloon itself is:\n\nE = (C/2)*(r-a)^2\n\nfor some constant C. A simple way to see this is to think of the balloon as a two dimensional network of springs (the potential energy of a spring is V = (k/2)(x-x0)^2) which linearly scale in size as the balloon does.\n\nTreat the air as incompressible at least for a qualitative explanation (consider how difficult it is to blow air into a fixed container (such as a pop bottle) versus a balloon). In that case the guage or net pressure (difference from atmospheric pressure) just comes from the elastic force of the balloon. The relation between the volume of air inside and the radius is:\n\ndV/dr = 4pi*r^2\n\nSo the relation between the energy and the volume of air inside it (which is the same as the pressure (dE = PdV):\n\nP(r) = dE/dV = (C/4pi)(r-a)/r^2 \n= Constant * (1/r - a/r^2)\n\nThis function increases from 0 at r=a to a maximum at r=R=2a, and from there on decreases as the radius increases. The maximum may not occur exactly at 2a, but it probably increases up to some relatively small radius R and then decreases. \n\nIf two balloons are blown up to normal sizes (>R), air should flow from the smaller into the larger. In other words the small one gets even smaller until it goes below (the very small radius) R where the pressure begins to decrease with size.
686605
Helium is lighter than air and cause the ball to float away.\n\nCarbon Dioxide is heavier than air so the ball would not bounce so well and it would be harder to kick.\n\nOxygen is lighter than air, but the difference is so small you wouldn't notice, no more that a ball being slightly over/under inflated.\n\nSince air is the cheapest, at a cost of nil, I suggest you put that in you balls.
730471
Enrique_C is correct if there is no stretch in the balloon's material, like with a Mylar balloon.  With a latex balloon, it would take more helium, because it requires more pressure to stretch the balloon material.  This pressure will increase the density of the helium in the balloon, thus requiring more helium to fill the same space.  The smaller the balloon is when deflated, the more helium it will take to inflate it to 16ft.
881994
An balloon has positive buoyancy (floats) if the volume of air it displaces weighs more than the balloon. This is the same as saying the balloon is less dense than the air it is in.\n\nIn air, which is mostly nitrogen and only about twenty percent oxygen, a balloon will not float if its overall density is greater than air. That is, if the balloon and the gas it contains weighs more than the volume of air that it occupies the balloon will sink. So you can't fill the ball on with air and expect it to float because the balloon fabric is denser than air.\n\nHowever, there are three (and only three) gases whose densities are less than air: hydrogen, helium, and hot air. If the volume of the balloon is large enough, the weight of the hydrogen or helium or hot air when added to the weight of the fabric will be less than the weight of the air the balloon displaces. The balloon rises.\n\nAll of this is commonly referred to as manifestations of Archimedes' Principle.
94588
It depends on various factors but most important would be pressure. As the balloon ascends into the upper atmosphere pressure is slowly reduced as the air gets thinner farther up the balloon goes, Pressure within the balloon where the helium is held soon expands out as the air molecules in the atmosphere reduces and at one point it will burst as the helium expands past the stretchability limit of the balloon. So it depends on how strong the balloon fiber is, how much helium is stored within the balloon, how thin is the surrounding atmosphere compared to pressure within the balloon and also if the balloon meets any obstruction on its way up.
19534
ok, so lets calculate this.  a balloon with a foot diameter has a volume of .7854 cubic feet. .5 cubic feet converts into 14.158423356 liters.  The density of helium is .1785 g/L (grams per liter) and the density of air is usually approximately 1.25 g/L.  The difference between these densities is 1.07g/L.  The formula for density is d=m/V (density equals mass over volume)  so we set d=m/V, 1.07=m/14.158423356.  the 1.07 was the difference in density(how much less dense helium is than air) and the V i said(14.158423356) is how many Liters i said was in .5 cubic feet before.  it has to be in liters since the density measurement i gave you was in grams per liters, so for the formula to work we need to work in liters and receive an answer in grams.  ok, so solving for m in that density formula, we get 15.95g.  so each balloon can hold about 16g.  but i looked up the average weight of a regular party balloon and it's 2g, so each balloon can hold 14 more grams.  converting grams to pounds, 14 grams equals .030864717 pounds.  so each balloon can hold .030864717 pounds.  now if we divide your weight by the amount of weight each balloon can hold, we will get the number of balloons you need to support your weight. 160/.030864717 = 5183.9 so 5,184 balloons. \n\nyou would need 5,184 balloons to equal your weight.  this only makes you weightless, so the force of these balloons would basically perfectly counteract the force of gravity, so you would need to jump to push off and you wouldnt be pulled back down. if you wanted the balloons to actually lift you, you would need more, and depending on how many more, you would have a greater acceleration upward.  this is also assuming that each balloon is perfectly one foot in diameter, so the number of balloons may fluctuate a bit.\n\neven so, might i suggest you use a balloon with a larger diameter?\n\nif you want to find out for sure with specific balloons, you can always get like 50 balloons and some weights.  then you can measure how much weight the 50 balloons hold. then you set up a proportion saying that 50 balloons divided by the weight you measure it can hold(in pounds) equals X balloons divided by 160 lbs. then you can solve more precisely for the specific balloons you have.
859887
Not sure if I understand. You're going to replace the old hydrogen with some new hydrogen that's less dense? The only way for the density of hydrogen to be less is if the pressure is lower or the temperature is higher. Since this is a balloon, the pressure has to match the pressure of the atmosphere. \n\nSo I'll assume the new hydrogen is at a higher temperature. In that case, the balloon can be kept inflated to the same size with fewer molecules. Therefore the mass of the hydrogen will be less because there is less of it. So the bouyancy will increase. The balloon as a whole is less dense so it is more bouyant.
806738
If you use a heavy enough weight then the effects of air are minimal.
976120
Helium molecules are very small and slowly leak through the balloon wall.\n\nAir contains a mixture of gaseous molecules, primarily Nitrogen and Oxygen.  These are much larger than Helium.
536458
The higher you go the thinner the air, if there is less air then there is less mass to hold the heat from the sun.
345743
i know!\n\nas temperature decreases, volume decreases. its part of the kinetic molecular theory.\n\nthe gas particles move slower because they lose energy as temperature decreases so they don't exert as much force on the walls of the balloon, so the balloon shrinks.