eli5 What happens to helium balloons after they float into the atmosphere?
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They will pop when they get high enough and the pressure is too low or helium will leak and will no longer float in the air. The result of both is the will fall back down to the ground.
Usually they burst when they reach a high enough altitude. The atmosphere is very thin and cold up there. The coldness makes the rubber of the balloon less elastic, and the lower air pressure means that the pressure inside the balloon is pushing harder against the inside of the balloon (similar to if you’ve seen pictures online of chip bags “puffing up” at high altitudes). Eventually the difference between the pressure inside and outside are too great, and the rubber can’t stretch enough, and it pops.
The balloon goes up where there is less air to squish it, so it gets bigger. When it gets bigger, the rubber stretches and the tiny holes and imperfections get bigger, and the helium leaks out until it’s empty. Or sometimes, it gets so big it pops.
They pop, leak or otherwise lose buoyancy and fall back to earth, polluting the environment and presenting choking hazards to wildlife.
I think they hurt the environment and eventually degrade into microplastics that enter the food chain. But they are pretty!
Three typical outcomes: 1. blown into a sharp/hot object and pop. 2. lose helium over time and descend. 3. get high enough that low atmospheric pressure causes balloon latex to expand to the point of bursting.
They pop, and the irreplaceable helium rises to the top of the atmosphere, is stripped away, and is lost forever.
It would be so much easier to google your question than compose this post and reply to comments, but if you haven’t heard of the hole in the zone layer letting helium escape into space, essentially infinitely, and there is now less of it on our planet and im sure you don’t know but helium is a non-renewable resource. I know this from being 32 and from buying balloons for functions/parties
Área 51 happened the last time large helium balloons fell from the atmosphere so stop setting your balloons free
We don’t want the government seizing any ones properties.
The higher up an object travels the lower the pressure acting on it gets. The equation for pressure in fluids is pressure = depth in fluid × gravitational field strength × density of fluid. The atmosphere is a fluid and thus the higher one goes the lower the pressure acting on oneself will be. There is air inside the balloon and this causes a pressure difference between the inside and the outside of the balloon. The equation for pressure on a surface is pressure = force ÷ area. And thus a force is exerted on the material of the balloon causing it to stretch and eventually pop.
TD,LR The will pop when the pressure is low enough and the material of the now ex balloon will fall back to earth. As for the helium in the balloon, well my knowledge of physics is limited, from what I have heard, the helium will become trapped at the top of the atmosphere since it has a low density compared to many other gasses and this will easily be displaced.
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