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6-Year-Old Boy in Balloon over Colorado - RF Cafe Forums
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Kirt Blattenberger
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Post subject: 6-Year-Old Boy in Balloon over Colorado
Posted: Thu Oct 15, 2009 5:14 pm
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Site Admin |
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Joined: Sun Aug 03, 2003 2:02 pm Posts: 878
Location: Erie, PA |
Greetings: I've been watching the coverage of a 6-year-old boy who supposedly
climbed inside his father's hobby weather balloon and floated away. News helicopters
followed its progress over the eastern plains of Colorado as it was whipped back and
forth over the plains as about 3,000 feet above ground level (AGL). The whole time I
was asking, "Why hasn't somebody done the calculation about whether such a craft was
capable of lifting itself and a 6-year-old boy?" The reporters said the saucer-shaped,
mylar balloon was about 20 feet in diameter, and it looked to be maybe 3 feet high at
the center. The volume for a cylinder 20 feet in diameter (10 foot radius)* and
3 feet high is about 942 ft^3. That converts to about 26.7 kiloliters. Helium has a
lifting force of roughly 1 gram per liter at sea level and 60 degrees, so that means
26.7 kg, or about 58.8 pounds. A typical 6-year-old boy weighs about 45 pounds
per a government website I consulted. The picture of the boy shows he was no fatty,
so assume 45 pounds. The balloon itself had its own weight plus the weight of
a small equipment gondola underneath, so assume maybe 3 pounds. That leaves around 55
pounds to lift. Since the balloon had less volume than a cylinder, and it was partially
collapsed, it might have had 70% of the cylinder's volume at most, so that leaves around
38 pounds of lifting force. It seems to me that there is no way that balloon
could have lifted the boy, so the entire event was overplayed. Oh well, it made good
news. Too bad that the news people don't have enough science savvy to even do a sanity
check. Maybe I'm wrong. What do you think?
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/10/15/colorado.boy.balloon/index.html
* Typo correction 10/16/2009, in response
to Voltamancer's comment. Yes, I used 10 feet as the radius in my volume calculation.
_________________ - Kirt Blattenberger
RF Cafe Progenitor & Webmaster
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Ed Milan
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Post subject: Re: 6-Year-Old Boy in Balloon over Colorado
Posted: Thu Oct 15, 2009 11:00 pm
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Joined: Mon Aug 04, 2003 10:13 am Posts: 18
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Good work Kirt! I was thinking along the same lines that the balloon just didn't look
like it was big enough to lift even a small boy. The shape of the balloon did not look
stressed like there was a heavy weight inthe gondola area. I think the people were looking
for publicity. Did you see where the parents had taken part in a reality TV show for
spouse swapping? Not exactly reputable folks.
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Voltamancer
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Post subject: Re: 6-Year-Old Boy in Balloon over Colorado
Posted: Fri Oct 16, 2009 12:52 pm
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Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 12:46 pm Posts: 1
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Good thinking! You may want to correct the typo, where the first reference is to a 20
foot diameter, then a 10-foot diameter. Don't worry, the math is right for the 10-foot
radius
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Earl
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Post subject: Re: 6-Year-Old Boy in Balloon over Colorado
Posted: Fri Oct 16, 2009 3:23 pm
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Joined: Wed Apr 05, 2006 7:50 am Posts: 23
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Yeah and your calculation for bouyancy is at sea level. That part of Colorado is at
about 5,000' ASL and the balloon was never more than around 8,000' ASL. There's no way
in Hades that it could have had a boy in it... maybe the family pooch but that's about
it.
You're right about how pathetically lacking most people are of science. But
you'd think the news agencies with all their nightly "experts" on the payroll would
have done the work you did to determine whether it was even possible for the boy to
be aboard.
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nubbage
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Post subject: Re: 6-Year-Old Boy in Balloon over Colorado
Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2009 12:21 pm
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General |
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Joined: Fri Feb 17, 2006 12:07 pm Posts: 365
Location: London UK |
And the conclusion we draw is: if the media story has legs, it doesn't need lift, or
even truth. By coincidence over the weekend on the BBC steam-driven radio (or should
we call it wireless these days?) was a real true-life run-away drama: the story of the
Canadian train driver on the footplate of a runaway loco with no brakes in March 87
or 89: driven down-hill by 13 fully loaded ore trucks, through Canada at 75 mph. Wow.
_________________ At bottom, life is all about Sucking in and blowing out.
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Nancy08
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Post subject: Re: 6-Year-Old Boy in Balloon over Colorado
Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 3:25 am
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Joined: Thu Oct 22, 2009 3:07 am Posts: 1
Location: Absecon, New Jersey, USA |
The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent
guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds
of the masses.
How
intelligent are you? Find out here:
IQ Test || Intelligence
Tests
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Kirt Blattenberger |
Post subject: Update: 6-Year-Old Boy in Balloon over Colorado
Posted: Sun Nov 15, 2009 12:19 am
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Site Admin |
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Joined: Sun Aug 03, 2003 2:02 pm Posts: 878
Location: Erie, PA |
_________________ - Kirt Blattenberger
RF Cafe Progenitor & Webmaster
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Posted 11/12/2012
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Copyright: 1996 - 2024
Webmaster:
Kirt
Blattenberger,
BSEE - KB3UON
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