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Re: Balloons without gases...



Greetings everyone. I've been working on a few labs dealing with
the gas laws when a thought occurred to me. Is it possible to make a
"floating" balloon without the use of any "light" gases (hydrogen,
helium, etc.)? What I was wondering, would it be possible to take a
rubber balloon like material and seal it all the way around so that air
cannot get in or out of the inside envelope. The inside lacks any air
(vacuum or near - vacuum). If the inside of this balloon had some sort
of light, strong rib material that flexes outward pushing the outer walls
so that the balloon has a greater volume. I know the pressure inside
will greatly decrease and the "skin" of the balloon will be "sucked"
inwards, but if it were rigid enough, could this work? Has it already be
done? Am I onto something that could bring me instant success and early
retirement? :-)

Dwight
Ashland, OH

Dwight--

I think this could bring you instnat success and early retirement. The
secret is in the "light but expanding to rigid" formula. Let's imagine
that we get that material for the balloon, and that we add a valve to allow
gases to enter the balloon. We expand the light but rigid balloon and
ascend to height h, we then maneuver with negligible energy expenditure
over a lever and then open the valve. As we take in gas the balloon
depresses the lever and raise a weight on the other arm. Repeating the
process we raise as much mass as we like to height h and have a perpetual
motion machine.

Richard Grandy