If bubble wrap was filled with helium instead of air, would it cost less to send parcels in the mail?

Answer 1

That has to rank as the most intelligent daft question I ever heard. Congratulations on your ingenuity. Everyone knows that helium is lighter that air and that airships float because they're absolutely crammed with the stuff, so lets make it the plane for all round savings. (I suspect the amount of stuff you'd have to wrap around a parcel would cause problems with the volume of your parcel and you'd be charged more on this basis) I guess you could make a plane significanlty lighter so that less fuel were used, so it's a theoretical yes. In practice it's probably no, as Helium is very expensive to produce and it's purchase, by the airline, would have to be incorporated into the cost of a fare. You might say that it can't be that expensive and that at some point it would be paid for.
However to make the necessary weight savings to optimize the use of Helium for extra buoyancy, the use of lightweight bladders and the properties of Helium cause leakage and therefore it would have to be purchased periodically.

I'm sure someone out there has done a feasibilty study into this and it should be fairly simple mathematics within close parameters when volumes, lift, weights and variables like fuel costs are taken into account. It would make a novel spreadsheet application.
A pleasure to ponder that question.

Answer 2

Helium Bubble Wrap

Answer 3

You might have a hard time getting the bubble wrap into the box, but yes, the lower weight of the helium compared to the equivalent volume of air would result in your package weighing less. The only problem is you'd have to pay for the helium tank, so I think you still come out ahead using bubble wrap filled with normal air. :)

Answer 4

Would it weigh less? Yes! Would it cost less? That depends on how you figure. Straight shipping costs (provided they go down to the tenth of a pound or smaller) would be less. Overall, though, it would be more expensive.

I saw a show (it's called "Brainiac") where they actually used helium in the package. The package was indeed lighter, but if you figure in that it was only by a very small amount (the show is british and I think it saved something like 10 grams in weight...about the weight of a 10 large paperclips) and the cost of the helium to put in, it was more expensive to ship in the end.

Check out the show; it runs on the G4 network (not sure what time anymore)

Answer 5

Probably not. I think the amount of helium would not be enough to lessen the weight on the scales an appreciable amount, and would not therefore lessen the actual shipping cost. On top of which, the extra expense of using helium rather than air would probably actually raise your overall expense.

Further, if the helium did make even an ounce's difference, the extra cost of helium may over-ride that.

Answer 6

If all parcels were costed by weight, I would imagine yes, but in larger parcels they are costed by the amount of space they occupy in transport, so much a cubic metre, but never the less a very good quesiton, best I've seen here for a while, ps a while = 1 year.

Answer 7

You would need a lot of helium to make the package lighter (depending on the weight) which means you would need more bubble wrap, so the answer is no.

Answer 8

No. it would be a matter of less than 1 unit of what could be measured... air in bubble rap doesnt weigh that much anyway.. good thinking though... besides it would cost more to fill the bubble rap which in turn, would raise the price of shipping materials.

Answer 9

probably not because helium cost more than air and they would probably raise the price of bubble wrap. so i say no

Answer 10

I guess it depends if the helium was in enough volume to make a real difference LOL. Good question though!