This brings on some interesting questions. How high could it actually get? How far could it actually travel (in the air)?
Ejem… ccwaterback this is the Straight Dope Message Board, post those questions in Great Debates… I mean, seeing the kind of questions that are posted there, asking for the flight characterisitcs of a cell phone aerostat wouldn´t look weird at all. 
Ehhh…
:rolleyes:
I mean, Great Questions… although it could end up in Great Debates in the long run.
Ehhh…
:rolleyes:
I mean, General Questions… although it could end up in Great Debates in the long run.
Oh dear… I´m a big dodo.
I’m glad I wasn’t at work when I read that. There aren’t that many things on the boards that make me literally laugh out loud.
Especially if you read it in a “Pooh” voice.
Another boring vote for donation to a Women’s Shelter. I just gave them about four old phones.
heh
So, any updates on the Bruce_Daddy-1?
Houston, we have a problem.
What is the wingspan of an unladen cel phone?
Depends, is it an European or African cell phone?
Well, you were waiting for that…
So, it’s a matter of call-waiting ratio, you say?
–starch glare—
As the person whose home address reads
Tried To Be Neighborly When First Moved In But Instead You Hit On My Wife
123 NexttomeSt.
Simpsonville, SC 12345
I find your comments to be in incredibly poor taste.
Not really. I’m gonna charge her up one last time* tonight. I’ve got band practice at 10 am in the morning so probably after that I’ll hit the store for the ballons and such. Therefore, lift-off should be around 2 pm, I’ll post pictures up then. I’ve got to warn you, the quality of pictures this phone takes are not that great. Here’s one I took of myself in the bathroom. (Don’t ask). Maybe it’ll be better outside. This should be fun.
*Wouldn’t it be cool if somebody were stranded somewhere in the woods and they called to the heavens for help and a cellphone slowly drifted down into their lap?
Specially if you put a note saying:
"I hear thee,
Bruce Almighty."As a proffesional balloon launcher, i second the parachute idea, if u kill someone with it on the way down your in deep shit.
Some tips…
phone weighs ~200 grams
to get that to a respectable height, say about 20-25 km altitude you’ll need about a kilo of lift including the weight of the balloons. Use lots of balloons and only half fill them so then they won’t burst at lower altitude (pressure decrease with height, a nearly filled ballon won’t get to high before it bursts, a half filled one has enough stretch in the balloon to allow for expansion of the gas as height increases)
You could just find some meteorlogical station and send it up with one of their balloons, you can then track it with radar and find out where the sucker lands…
Where do you get a job like that? Lucky duck. 
it was simply a case of going to uni for six years till i was overqualified to work in my desired field and then taking the next best job on offer…
Either that or there was three jobs and two applicants.
So, is this phone a projectile yet?
I’ve been thinking. Maybe it would be better if, instead of packing it up all nice and neat in a cardboard box, you stick it in a freezer bag or something so the phone is clearly visible? I’m remembering the times when unidentified brown paper-wrapped packages were left at various businesses around town (including the post office) and the police evacuated the area, cordoned it off, and called in the bomb squad. They turned out not to be bombs (or anthrax, the other big fear) but they kept the police force tied up for a couple of hours each time.
I was thinking the exact same thing the other night. Maybe someone would think the package was the newest weapon in the Terror arsenal :eek:.
Or…, maybe not…
Anyway. the problem is that there’s gonna need to be adequate packaging so that if it ends up streaking towards the ground, it won’t kill someone or kill itself. So maybe lots of bubble wrap? Something clear, but still able to prevent the phone from dying on impact.