How many litres of gaseous helium would it take to lift 80kgs on Earth?
$begingroup$
I have dragons in mind for my world, but I'm trying to find logic in how would a medium-sized anything fly off and still be a danger to humans.
So far, I have a lizard-like cheetah with wings, hollow bones and very strong legs but I still doubt it would be able to fly if it had over 60kgs. So anyway I devised a plan for that, so if anyone has knowledge of physics and such that could answer the question I would be very grateful, thanks.
physics chemistry flight
edited 1 hour ago
Cyn
6,15411035
asked 4 hours ago
Alright itsCROAlright itsCRO
142
New contributor
Alright itsCRO is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
$endgroup$
add a comment |
$begingroup$
I have dragons in mind for my world, but I'm trying to find logic in how would a medium-sized anything fly off and still be a danger to humans.
So far, I have a lizard-like cheetah with wings, hollow bones and very strong legs but I still doubt it would be able to fly if it had over 60kgs. So anyway I devised a plan for that, so if anyone has knowledge of physics and such that could answer the question I would be very grateful, thanks.
physics chemistry flight
edited 1 hour ago
Cyn
6,15411035
asked 4 hours ago
Alright itsCROAlright itsCRO
142
New contributor
Alright itsCRO is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
$endgroup$
$begingroup$
Welcome to Worldbuilding! If you have a moment, please take the tour and visit the help center to learn more about the site. You may also find Worldbuilding Meta and The Sandbox useful. Here is a meta post on the culture and style of Worldbuilding.SE, just to help you understand our scope and methods, and how we do things here. Have fun!
$endgroup$
– Gryphon
4 hours ago
2
$begingroup$
We know that there were flying dinosaurs weighting 145kg or more so there's no reason your dinosaur at 60 or 80kgs could not fly without using buoyancy.
$endgroup$
– Tim B♦
4 hours ago
1
$begingroup$
@TimB pterosaurs are not dinosaurs, but that is a good low end mass estimate for Quetzalcoatlus. the largest flying dinosaur aka bird was around 70kg.
$endgroup$
– John
4 hours ago
$begingroup$
There is a rather useful calculator here - omnicalculator.com/everyday-life/helium-balloons
$endgroup$
– chasly from UK
1 hour ago
$begingroup$
This seems like a pure real-world physics question to me. Since we already have a site for those, I feel like this question should be migrated there.
$endgroup$
– Ilmari Karonen
36 mins ago
add a comment |
$begingroup$
I have dragons in mind for my world, but I'm trying to find logic in how would a medium-sized anything fly off and still be a danger to humans.
So far, I have a lizard-like cheetah with wings, hollow bones and very strong legs but I still doubt it would be able to fly if it had over 60kgs. So anyway I devised a plan for that, so if anyone has knowledge of physics and such that could answer the question I would be very grateful, thanks.
physics chemistry flight
edited 1 hour ago
Cyn
6,15411035
asked 4 hours ago
Alright itsCROAlright itsCRO
142
New contributor
Alright itsCRO is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
$endgroup$
I have dragons in mind for my world, but I'm trying to find logic in how would a medium-sized anything fly off and still be a danger to humans.
So far, I have a lizard-like cheetah with wings, hollow bones and very strong legs but I still doubt it would be able to fly if it had over 60kgs. So anyway I devised a plan for that, so if anyone has knowledge of physics and such that could answer the question I would be very grateful, thanks.
physics chemistry flight
physics chemistry flight
edited 1 hour ago
Cyn
6,15411035
asked 4 hours ago
Alright itsCROAlright itsCRO
142
New contributor
Alright itsCRO is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
edited 1 hour ago
Cyn
6,15411035
asked 4 hours ago
Alright itsCROAlright itsCRO
142
New contributor
Alright itsCRO is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
edited 1 hour ago
Cyn
6,15411035
edited 1 hour ago
Cyn
6,15411035
edited 1 hour ago
Cyn
6,15411035
6,15411035
asked 4 hours ago
Alright itsCROAlright itsCRO
142
New contributor
Alright itsCRO is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
asked 4 hours ago
Alright itsCROAlright itsCRO
142
asked 4 hours ago
Alright itsCROAlright itsCRO
142
142
New contributor
Alright itsCRO is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
New contributor
Alright itsCRO is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
Alright itsCRO is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
$begingroup$
Welcome to Worldbuilding! If you have a moment, please take the tour and visit the help center to learn more about the site. You may also find Worldbuilding Meta and The Sandbox useful. Here is a meta post on the culture and style of Worldbuilding.SE, just to help you understand our scope and methods, and how we do things here. Have fun!
$endgroup$
– Gryphon
4 hours ago
2
$begingroup$
We know that there were flying dinosaurs weighting 145kg or more so there's no reason your dinosaur at 60 or 80kgs could not fly without using buoyancy.
$endgroup$
– Tim B♦
4 hours ago
1
$begingroup$
@TimB pterosaurs are not dinosaurs, but that is a good low end mass estimate for Quetzalcoatlus. the largest flying dinosaur aka bird was around 70kg.
$endgroup$
– John
4 hours ago
$begingroup$
There is a rather useful calculator here - omnicalculator.com/everyday-life/helium-balloons
$endgroup$
– chasly from UK
1 hour ago
$begingroup$
This seems like a pure real-world physics question to me. Since we already have a site for those, I feel like this question should be migrated there.
$endgroup$
– Ilmari Karonen
36 mins ago
add a comment |
$begingroup$
Welcome to Worldbuilding! If you have a moment, please take the tour and visit the help center to learn more about the site. You may also find Worldbuilding Meta and The Sandbox useful. Here is a meta post on the culture and style of Worldbuilding.SE, just to help you understand our scope and methods, and how we do things here. Have fun!
$endgroup$
– Gryphon
4 hours ago
2
$begingroup$
We know that there were flying dinosaurs weighting 145kg or more so there's no reason your dinosaur at 60 or 80kgs could not fly without using buoyancy.
$endgroup$
– Tim B♦
4 hours ago
1
$begingroup$
@TimB pterosaurs are not dinosaurs, but that is a good low end mass estimate for Quetzalcoatlus. the largest flying dinosaur aka bird was around 70kg.
$endgroup$
– John
4 hours ago
$begingroup$
There is a rather useful calculator here - omnicalculator.com/everyday-life/helium-balloons
$endgroup$
– chasly from UK
1 hour ago
$begingroup$
This seems like a pure real-world physics question to me. Since we already have a site for those, I feel like this question should be migrated there.
$endgroup$
– Ilmari Karonen
36 mins ago
$begingroup$
Welcome to Worldbuilding! If you have a moment, please take the tour and visit the help center to learn more about the site. You may also find Worldbuilding Meta and The Sandbox useful. Here is a meta post on the culture and style of Worldbuilding.SE, just to help you understand our scope and methods, and how we do things here. Have fun!
$endgroup$
– Gryphon
4 hours ago
$begingroup$
Welcome to Worldbuilding! If you have a moment, please take the tour and visit the help center to learn more about the site. You may also find Worldbuilding Meta and The Sandbox useful. Here is a meta post on the culture and style of Worldbuilding.SE, just to help you understand our scope and methods, and how we do things here. Have fun!
$endgroup$
– Gryphon
4 hours ago
2
2
$begingroup$
We know that there were flying dinosaurs weighting 145kg or more so there's no reason your dinosaur at 60 or 80kgs could not fly without using buoyancy.
$endgroup$
– Tim B♦
4 hours ago
$begingroup$
We know that there were flying dinosaurs weighting 145kg or more so there's no reason your dinosaur at 60 or 80kgs could not fly without using buoyancy.
$endgroup$
– Tim B♦
4 hours ago
1
1
$begingroup$
@TimB pterosaurs are not dinosaurs, but that is a good low end mass estimate for Quetzalcoatlus. the largest flying dinosaur aka bird was around 70kg.
$endgroup$
– John
4 hours ago
$begingroup$
@TimB pterosaurs are not dinosaurs, but that is a good low end mass estimate for Quetzalcoatlus. the largest flying dinosaur aka bird was around 70kg.
$endgroup$
– John
4 hours ago
$begingroup$
There is a rather useful calculator here - omnicalculator.com/everyday-life/helium-balloons
$endgroup$
– chasly from UK
1 hour ago
$begingroup$
There is a rather useful calculator here - omnicalculator.com/everyday-life/helium-balloons
$endgroup$
– chasly from UK
1 hour ago
$begingroup$
This seems like a pure real-world physics question to me. Since we already have a site for those, I feel like this question should be migrated there.
$endgroup$
– Ilmari Karonen
36 mins ago
$begingroup$
This seems like a pure real-world physics question to me. Since we already have a site for those, I feel like this question should be migrated there.
$endgroup$
– Ilmari Karonen
36 mins ago
add a comment |
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
$begingroup$
For a back-of-the-envelope calculation the rule of thumb is that you need one cubic meter (1000 liters) of hydrogen or helium to lift one kilogram; so for 80 kilograms you need about 80 cubic meters (80,000 liters) of lifting gas.
For a more detailed calculation:
The average density of air at sea level is about 1.2 kg/m³.
The density of helium at 1 atmosphere pressure and 0°C temperature (that's called "standard temperature and pressure", STP) is about 0.18 kg/m³.
The lifting force is the difference between the weight of a volume of helium and the same volume of air, or 1.02 kg/m³.
For 80 kg you need 80 × 1.02 = 80.16 m³ of helium.
For a quick comparison, that's quite comparable with the capacity of a large railroad tank wagon, and about 20% more than the internal volume of a standard 40-foot (12.2 meters) intermodal container:
A stack of standard 40-foot (12.2 meters) intermodal containers. Each container has an internal volume of about 68 cubic meters. Photograph by Martini171, available on Wikimedia under the CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported license.
answered 4 hours ago
AlexPAlexP
36.6k783141
$endgroup$
add a comment |
$begingroup$
I still doubt it would be able to fly if it had over 60kgs
Helium has a lifting force of one gram per liter. For a 60kg person or animal, you will therefore 60,000 liters. That is 15,850.323 gallons for americans.
The first thing that comes to my mind when I think about 60,000 liters is that it's the usual volume capacity for yhese trucks:
Also notice that flying this way may be very hard. Larry Walters comes to mind.
answered 4 hours ago
RenanRenan
47.1k12110239
$endgroup$
$begingroup$
Thatsalottahelium....
$endgroup$
– JBH
4 hours ago
add a comment |
Your Answer
StackExchange.ifUsing("editor", function () {
return StackExchange.using("mathjaxEditing", function () {
StackExchange.MarkdownEditor.creationCallbacks.add(function (editor, postfix) {
StackExchange.mathjaxEditing.prepareWmdForMathJax(editor, postfix, [["$", "$"], ["\\(","\\)"]]);
});
});
}, "mathjax-editing");
StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "579"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);
StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});
function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
noCode: true, onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});
}
});
Alright itsCRO is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fworldbuilding.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f137715%2fhow-many-litres-of-gaseous-helium-would-it-take-to-lift-80kgs-on-earth%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
$begingroup$
For a back-of-the-envelope calculation the rule of thumb is that you need one cubic meter (1000 liters) of hydrogen or helium to lift one kilogram; so for 80 kilograms you need about 80 cubic meters (80,000 liters) of lifting gas.
For a more detailed calculation:
The average density of air at sea level is about 1.2 kg/m³.
The density of helium at 1 atmosphere pressure and 0°C temperature (that's called "standard temperature and pressure", STP) is about 0.18 kg/m³.
The lifting force is the difference between the weight of a volume of helium and the same volume of air, or 1.02 kg/m³.
For 80 kg you need 80 × 1.02 = 80.16 m³ of helium.
For a quick comparison, that's quite comparable with the capacity of a large railroad tank wagon, and about 20% more than the internal volume of a standard 40-foot (12.2 meters) intermodal container:
A stack of standard 40-foot (12.2 meters) intermodal containers. Each container has an internal volume of about 68 cubic meters. Photograph by Martini171, available on Wikimedia under the CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported license.
answered 4 hours ago
AlexPAlexP
36.6k783141
$endgroup$
add a comment |
$begingroup$
For a back-of-the-envelope calculation the rule of thumb is that you need one cubic meter (1000 liters) of hydrogen or helium to lift one kilogram; so for 80 kilograms you need about 80 cubic meters (80,000 liters) of lifting gas.
For a more detailed calculation:
The average density of air at sea level is about 1.2 kg/m³.
The density of helium at 1 atmosphere pressure and 0°C temperature (that's called "standard temperature and pressure", STP) is about 0.18 kg/m³.
The lifting force is the difference between the weight of a volume of helium and the same volume of air, or 1.02 kg/m³.
For 80 kg you need 80 × 1.02 = 80.16 m³ of helium.
For a quick comparison, that's quite comparable with the capacity of a large railroad tank wagon, and about 20% more than the internal volume of a standard 40-foot (12.2 meters) intermodal container:
A stack of standard 40-foot (12.2 meters) intermodal containers. Each container has an internal volume of about 68 cubic meters. Photograph by Martini171, available on Wikimedia under the CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported license.
answered 4 hours ago
AlexPAlexP
36.6k783141
$endgroup$
add a comment |
$begingroup$
For a back-of-the-envelope calculation the rule of thumb is that you need one cubic meter (1000 liters) of hydrogen or helium to lift one kilogram; so for 80 kilograms you need about 80 cubic meters (80,000 liters) of lifting gas.
For a more detailed calculation:
The average density of air at sea level is about 1.2 kg/m³.
The density of helium at 1 atmosphere pressure and 0°C temperature (that's called "standard temperature and pressure", STP) is about 0.18 kg/m³.
The lifting force is the difference between the weight of a volume of helium and the same volume of air, or 1.02 kg/m³.
For 80 kg you need 80 × 1.02 = 80.16 m³ of helium.
For a quick comparison, that's quite comparable with the capacity of a large railroad tank wagon, and about 20% more than the internal volume of a standard 40-foot (12.2 meters) intermodal container:
A stack of standard 40-foot (12.2 meters) intermodal containers. Each container has an internal volume of about 68 cubic meters. Photograph by Martini171, available on Wikimedia under the CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported license.
answered 4 hours ago
AlexPAlexP
36.6k783141
$endgroup$
For a back-of-the-envelope calculation the rule of thumb is that you need one cubic meter (1000 liters) of hydrogen or helium to lift one kilogram; so for 80 kilograms you need about 80 cubic meters (80,000 liters) of lifting gas.
For a more detailed calculation:
The average density of air at sea level is about 1.2 kg/m³.
The density of helium at 1 atmosphere pressure and 0°C temperature (that's called "standard temperature and pressure", STP) is about 0.18 kg/m³.
The lifting force is the difference between the weight of a volume of helium and the same volume of air, or 1.02 kg/m³.
For 80 kg you need 80 × 1.02 = 80.16 m³ of helium.
For a quick comparison, that's quite comparable with the capacity of a large railroad tank wagon, and about 20% more than the internal volume of a standard 40-foot (12.2 meters) intermodal container:
A stack of standard 40-foot (12.2 meters) intermodal containers. Each container has an internal volume of about 68 cubic meters. Photograph by Martini171, available on Wikimedia under the CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported license.
answered 4 hours ago
AlexPAlexP
36.6k783141
edited 42 mins ago
answered 4 hours ago
AlexPAlexP
36.6k783141
answered 4 hours ago
AlexPAlexP
36.6k783141
answered 4 hours ago
AlexPAlexP
36.6k783141
36.6k783141
add a comment |
add a comment |
$begingroup$
I still doubt it would be able to fly if it had over 60kgs
Helium has a lifting force of one gram per liter. For a 60kg person or animal, you will therefore 60,000 liters. That is 15,850.323 gallons for americans.
The first thing that comes to my mind when I think about 60,000 liters is that it's the usual volume capacity for yhese trucks:
Also notice that flying this way may be very hard. Larry Walters comes to mind.
answered 4 hours ago
RenanRenan
47.1k12110239
$endgroup$
$begingroup$
Thatsalottahelium....
$endgroup$
– JBH
4 hours ago
add a comment |
$begingroup$
I still doubt it would be able to fly if it had over 60kgs
Helium has a lifting force of one gram per liter. For a 60kg person or animal, you will therefore 60,000 liters. That is 15,850.323 gallons for americans.
The first thing that comes to my mind when I think about 60,000 liters is that it's the usual volume capacity for yhese trucks:
Also notice that flying this way may be very hard. Larry Walters comes to mind.
answered 4 hours ago
RenanRenan
47.1k12110239
$endgroup$
$begingroup$
Thatsalottahelium....
$endgroup$
– JBH
4 hours ago
add a comment |
$begingroup$
I still doubt it would be able to fly if it had over 60kgs
Helium has a lifting force of one gram per liter. For a 60kg person or animal, you will therefore 60,000 liters. That is 15,850.323 gallons for americans.
The first thing that comes to my mind when I think about 60,000 liters is that it's the usual volume capacity for yhese trucks:
Also notice that flying this way may be very hard. Larry Walters comes to mind.
answered 4 hours ago
RenanRenan
47.1k12110239
$endgroup$
I still doubt it would be able to fly if it had over 60kgs
Helium has a lifting force of one gram per liter. For a 60kg person or animal, you will therefore 60,000 liters. That is 15,850.323 gallons for americans.
The first thing that comes to my mind when I think about 60,000 liters is that it's the usual volume capacity for yhese trucks:
Also notice that flying this way may be very hard. Larry Walters comes to mind.
answered 4 hours ago
RenanRenan
47.1k12110239
edited 4 hours ago
answered 4 hours ago
RenanRenan
47.1k12110239
answered 4 hours ago
RenanRenan
47.1k12110239
answered 4 hours ago
RenanRenan
47.1k12110239
47.1k12110239
$begingroup$
Thatsalottahelium....
$endgroup$
– JBH
4 hours ago
add a comment |
$begingroup$
Thatsalottahelium....
$endgroup$
– JBH
4 hours ago
$begingroup$
Thatsalottahelium....
$endgroup$
– JBH
4 hours ago
$begingroup$
Thatsalottahelium....
$endgroup$
– JBH
4 hours ago
add a comment |
Alright itsCRO is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Alright itsCRO is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Alright itsCRO is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Alright itsCRO is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Thanks for contributing an answer to Worldbuilding Stack Exchange!
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
Use MathJax to format equations. MathJax reference.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fworldbuilding.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f137715%2fhow-many-litres-of-gaseous-helium-would-it-take-to-lift-80kgs-on-earth%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
$begingroup$
Welcome to Worldbuilding! If you have a moment, please take the tour and visit the help center to learn more about the site. You may also find Worldbuilding Meta and The Sandbox useful. Here is a meta post on the culture and style of Worldbuilding.SE, just to help you understand our scope and methods, and how we do things here. Have fun!
$endgroup$
– Gryphon
4 hours ago
2
$begingroup$
We know that there were flying dinosaurs weighting 145kg or more so there's no reason your dinosaur at 60 or 80kgs could not fly without using buoyancy.
$endgroup$
– Tim B♦
4 hours ago
1
$begingroup$
@TimB pterosaurs are not dinosaurs, but that is a good low end mass estimate for Quetzalcoatlus. the largest flying dinosaur aka bird was around 70kg.
$endgroup$
– John
4 hours ago
$begingroup$
There is a rather useful calculator here - omnicalculator.com/everyday-life/helium-balloons
$endgroup$
– chasly from UK
1 hour ago
$begingroup$
This seems like a pure real-world physics question to me. Since we already have a site for those, I feel like this question should be migrated there.
$endgroup$
– Ilmari Karonen
36 mins ago