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Helium Balloons

Helium balloons are the most entertaining of all balloons because they float. Kids and adults can enjoy something as simple as a floating balloon, and many often wonder why it floats. A balloon filled with helium floats for the same reasons that a bottle filled with air floats on the surface of the water. Imagine taking that air filled bottle to the bottom of a lake. If it had a string on it, it could be held at the bottom of the lake in the same way as a balloon is held on land. If the string is released the bottle will rush to the top of the lake.

Helium balloons act in the same way as the underwater bottle, but in the air. The reason the bottle rises is because the container has displaced a certain amount of water. The air in the bottle takes up space, but the air is much lighter than the water. Even with the weight of the bottle its still lighter than water so it will rush to a more balanced area, in this case its where the air and the water meet.

This is called the law of buoyancy, and it applies to helium balloons as well. Helium is lighter than air, so when a balloon is filled with enough of it, it floats. The difference between the balloon and the bottle floating is the type of lake. The bottle floats in a lake of water, and the balloon floats in a lake of air. Once the balloon pops, usually because of a combination of high altitude pressure differences (the balloon keeps expanding as it rises) and temperature, the helium will continue rising into space.

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