Quote:
Originally Posted by EricH
It gets better. You also have to have something to hold the helium. However, you could possibly get better lift by pressurizing the helium, allowing more liters to be added... which opens up its own set of problems, including the fact that helium escapes from containers very easily if there are any holes at all.
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Helium balloons float because helium weighs less than air. Shoving more helium molecules into the same volume won't increase lift, it'll actually decrease it! Imagine you have two 1-liter bottles of soda. They each weigh a certain amount. Now I hand you a 1-litter bottle that's been insanely pressurized and actually contains 2 liters of soda - which is heavier? The pressurized bottle weighs the same (discounting the container weight) as the two unpressurized bottles!