# How many helium balloons are needed to lift a child off the ground? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 11, 2002, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-helium-balloons-are-needed-to-lift-a-child-off-the-ground/113376 "2002-06-11T03:06:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Piratecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b3f665/32.png) [@Piratecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Piratecat)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2002, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-helium-balloons-are-needed-to-lift-a-child-off-the-ground/113376/1 "2002-06-11T03:06:14Z")
We’ve all seen movies or TV shows where a street vendor hands a child a huge bunch of balloons and up, up, up they go. Well, we were at a birthday party the other day, and they had a helium tank. So we started to wonder… how many balloons would it take to actually do that? If anyone has any idea, I’d love to hear it. It’d also be fun to know how many you’d need for an adult as well as a child. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Poloin99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Poloin99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poloin99)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2002, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-helium-balloons-are-needed-to-lift-a-child-off-the-ground/113376/2 "2002-06-11T03:26:55Z")
Question How many regular-sized helium-filled balloons would it take to lift someone? What is the equation to figure it out? Answer Here’s how you could figure it out… If you have read the article How Helium Balloons Work, then you know that helium has a lifting force of 1 gram per liter. So if you have a balloon that contains 5 liters of helium, the balloon can lift 5 grams. A normal balloon at an amusement park might be 30 centimeters (about 1 foot) in diameter. To determine how many liters of helium a sphere can hold, the equation is 4/3_pi_r_r_r. The radius of a 30-centimeter-diameter balloon is 15 centimeters, so: 4/3 \* pi \* 15 \* 15 \* 15 = 14,137 cubic centimeters = 14 liters So a normal amusement park balloon can lift about 14 grams, assuming that the weight of the balloon itself and the string is negligible. If you weigh 50 kilograms (about 110 pounds), then you weigh 50,000 grams. Divide your 50,000 grams by the 14 grams per balloon and you find that you need 3,571.42 balloons to lift your weight. You might want to add 500 more if you actually would like to rise at a reasonable rate. So you need roughly 4,000 balloons to lift yourself if you weigh 50 kilograms, and you can adjust that number according to your weight. Let’s say that instead of going to the amusement park, you go to an army surplus store and buy one 3-meter (about 10-foot) balloon. It can hold: 4/3 \* pi \* 150 \* 150 \* 150 = 14,137,000 cubic centimeters = 14,137 liters It would only take four of those to give you the same lift. One balloon that is 30 meters (about 100 feet) in diameter displaces 14,137,000 liters, so it can lift 14,000 kilograms (about 31,000 pounds) – this is roughly the size of a large blimp. from “[howstuffworks.com](http://howstuffworks.com)” ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2002, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-helium-balloons-are-needed-to-lift-a-child-off-the-ground/113376/3 "2002-06-11T03:40:37Z")
If you’re going to try this at home, it depends on how big the balloons are. [http://www.clusterballoon.org/history.htm](http://www.clusterballoon.org/history.htm) > [@](#): > > Ian Ashpole, a commercial balloonist from England, made some ascents to 10,000 feet with several hundred three-foot balloons as an advertising promotion for a champagne company in 1997. For safety reasons, Ashpole ascended with his cluster balloon attached to a hot-air balloon, and descended via parachute. In 2001, Ashpole made a similar ascent to 11,000 feet which he claimed as a world record for flying with “party balloons”, receiving television coverage on the BBC news. > > \< snip \> > > I use latex rubber balloons – not weather balloons, but large-size balloons made by toy balloon manufacturers for decoration and advertising. The British cluster brethren seem rather obsessed with using “toy” or “party” balloons, so they can claim some type of world record. This is an arbitrary distinction at best – how small must a balloon be to be a “toy”? I find that a hundred or so balloons is pretty much the limit of what you can keep untangled and controllable in flight, which dictates using balloons of at least four-foot size. Therefore, I happily leave the blobby-looking clusters of six-hundred party balloons to others; my inner child likes my big, beautiful “toys” just fine. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/england/newsid\_1623000/1623969.stm](http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/england/newsid_1623000/1623969.stm) > [@](#): > > Sunday, 28 October, 2001, 13:39 GMT > Party balloon flight breaks record > > A 46-year-old man from Herefordshire has flown into the record books by setting a new world record for a flight powered by party balloons. > Ian Ashpole, from Ross-on-Wye, reached a height of 11,000ft, while strapped to 600 balloons in a harness. It’s not clear exactly how big his balloons were. ---
**Author:** ![Lure](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ba8739/32.png) [@Lure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lure)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2002, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-helium-balloons-are-needed-to-lift-a-child-off-the-ground/113376/4 "2002-06-11T07:42:15Z")
It’s not clear exactly how big his balloons were \ I’d imagine he had a large set judging from the feat he attempted 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![USNSPARKS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9fc348/32.png) [@USNSPARKS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/USNSPARKS)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2002, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-helium-balloons-are-needed-to-lift-a-child-off-the-ground/113376/5 "2002-06-11T09:56:31Z")
Check out Larry the lawnchair balloonist ! [http://www.snopes2.com/spoons/noose/balloon.htm](http://www.snopes2.com/spoons/noose/balloon.htm) 16,000 ft He did what he wanted to do which was nice but it has a rather sad ending. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2002, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-helium-balloons-are-needed-to-lift-a-child-off-the-ground/113376/6 "2002-06-11T11:53:46Z")
This is **not** the way to settle your disputes with your neighbors’ children. Even if they _did_ trash your flower beds. After all, they’re going to land _eventually_, & then you’re just passing your problem on to somebody else. Try again. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2002, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-helium-balloons-are-needed-to-lift-a-child-off-the-ground/113376/7 "2002-06-11T12:08:25Z")
just to add a strong gust could send Skip airborne before he has enought ballons to stay up there. Don’t do it on a windy day.