i have a question to do with buoyancy?

Question

if one was to make a balloon, but instead change the balloon so it was made out of tough light weight material. then changed the structure of the balloon so it can handle a massive vacume on the inside, apply the vacume. would this rise up, in a hypthophetical reality where a light weight steel or carbon based steel was possible?

Answer 1

Yes!! It will rise up given that the volume is large enough and the balloon light enough for it to fly.....
People have been flying in balloons of light gas for ages, ...light gas or no gas does'nt make much difference ....just that balloon with no gas will be smaller.....

Answer 2

If there was a vacuum inside the balloon, and its structure could handle the strain, that balloon would drop. The only mass would be the material of the balloon itself, and unless there was some strong solid material that was less dense than air (that is a theoretical statement, such a material is not possible), it would sink based upon the mass and density of that material.

Now, it would sink slowly, just as a balloon filled with exhaled air from a person would sink, if the material that made up the balloon had the same properties as rubber or latex (or mylar if you want a 'shiny' balloon) but it would still sink since the vacuum has no density. Density is mass per unit volume, and something with no mass can have no density. Thus, the density of the balloon would not be less than that of the air, it would be nonexistant save for the density of the material of the balloon.

Answer 3

A helium balloon rises (is buoyant) when the weight of the balloon plus the weight of the helium it contains is less than the weight of the air it displaces. The vacuum has no mass, therefore no weight. So if the weight of the 'balloon' is less than the weight of the air it displaces, it too will rise.

Helium and hydrogen are useful for lighter-than-air craft because they provide internal pressure to maintain the shape of the balloon but add very little mass. Without that, you need the balloon to withstand the 15 pounds per square inch exerted by the atmosphere. That's the challenge.

Answer 4

The buoyant force on the balloon is the difference between the mass of the balloon and the mass of the air it displaces. (Archimedes' principle). Therefore if you could make a balloon out of sufficiently thin and rigid material, this would work. But I don't think steel of any sort would do.

Answer 5

As long as the weight of the balloon was less than the weight of the displaced air the balloon would rise.

Of course the balloon would have to withstand the atmospheric pressure that is trying to make it collapse.

Answer 6

If you could make a vacuum chamber as light weight as a balloon, then it would indeed float like a helium balloon. But in real life you cannot make anything light enough to float and also strong enough to hold its shape while containing a vacuum. Atmospheric pressure would crumple it up completely.

Answer 7

Bouyancy just requires that your balloon and the air inside it weigh less than the air that is displaced. So, once you decide how big the balloon would be, calculate how much that volume of air would weigh. If you can manufacture a balloon out of material that weighs less than that amount of air, it will be bouyant.

Answer 8

good idea. i think IF you can get a big volume container with strong thin material which can support a vacuum without collapsing , it should be able to rise in air. ( like an air filled closed bottle can rise in water from the bottom )
he thinkth in mysterious ways to perform his wonders !!

Answer 9

It depends if the air that is lighter inside could support the weight to lift it up.

Answer 10

I feel light headed just thinking about it!