If I have a steel canister of helium and a balloon attached to the valve. If the helium is in the canister, the assembly stays on the ground. If I let the gas into balloon it floats. Why?
There is no change to the amount of energy, the gas is de-pressurised from the canister to the balloon and the density inside the balloon changes, but the overall weight stays the same.q I should know, I just can’t figure out why exactly.
Thanks
In: Physics
I think you’re imagining the tank and balloon as one object, but they aren’t. You open the valve to fill the balloon…*and then close the valve again*. At that point, the balloon is touching the tank, but the stuff inside each of them is separate.
This set up is no different than trying off the balloon and sticking it to the tank with tape. Same idea. In both cases, the balloon wants to float but is affixed to the tank. The tank doesn’t float because the gas inside is compressed so that it’s much more dense than air/the loose gas in the balloon.
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