A balloon is an inflatable An inflatable is an object that can be inflated with a gas, usually with air, but hydrogen, helium and nitrogen are also used. One of several advantages of an inflatable is that it can be stored in a small space when not inflated, since inflatables depend on the presence of a gas to maintain their size and shape. Function fulfillment per mass used flexible bag filled with a type of gas Gas is one of three classical states of matter. Near absolute zero, a substance exists as a solid. As heat is added to this substance it melts into a liquid at its melting point , boils into a gas at its boiling point, and if heated high enough would enter a plasma state in which the electrons are so energized that they leave their parent atoms, such as helium Helium is the chemical element with atomic number 2 and an atomic weight of 4.002602, which is represented by the symbol He. It is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, inert monatomic gas that heads the noble gas group in the periodic table. Its boiling and melting points are the lowest among the elements and it exists only as a gas except, hydrogen Hydrogen is the chemical element with atomic number 1. It is represented by the symbol H. With an average atomic weight of 1.00794 u (1.007825 u for Hydrogen-1), hydrogen is the lightest and most abundant chemical element, constituting roughly 75 % of the Universe's elemental mass. Stars in the main sequence are mainly composed of hydrogen in its, nitrous oxide Nitrous oxide, commonly known as laughing gas, is a chemical compound with the formula N2O. It is an oxide of nitrogen. At room temperature, it is a colorless non-flammable gas, with a slightly sweet odor and taste. It is used in surgery and dentistry for its anesthetic and analgesic effects. It is known as "laughing gas" due to the or air The atmosphere of Earth is a layer of gases surrounding the planet Earth that is retained by Earth's gravity. The atmosphere protects life on Earth by absorbing ultraviolet solar radiation, warming the surface through heat retention , and reducing temperature extremes between day and night. Dry air contains roughly (by volume) 78% nitrogen, 21%. Modern balloons can be made from materials such as rubber Natural rubber is an elastomer that was originally derived from a milky colloidal suspension, or latex, found in the sap of some plants. The purified form of natural rubber is the chemical polyisoprene, which can also be produced synthetically. Natural rubber is used extensively in many applications and products, as is synthetic rubber, latex LaTeX is a document markup language and document preparation system for the TeX typesetting program. Within the typesetting system, its name is styled as . The term LaTeX refers only to the language in which documents are written, not to the editor used to write those documents. In order to create a document in LaTeX, a .tex file must be created, polychloroprene Neoprene or polychloroprene is a family of synthetic rubbers that are produced by polymerization of chloroprene. Neoprene in general has good chemical stability, and maintains flexibility over a wide temperature range. It is used in a wide variety of applications, such as laptop sleeves, orthopedic braces , electrical insulation, liquid and sheet, or a nylon Nylon is a generic designation for a family of synthetic polymers known generically as polyamides, first produced on February 28, 1935 by Wallace Carothers at DuPont's research facility at the DuPont Experimental Station. Nylon is one of the most commonly used polymers fabric, while some early balloons were sometimes made of dried animal bladders In anatomy, the urinary bladder is the organ that collects urine excreted by the kidneys prior to disposal by urination. A hollow muscular, and distensible organ, the bladder sits on the pelvic floor. Urine enters the bladder via the ureters and exits via the urethra. Some balloons are naturally or purely decorative, while others are used for specific purposes such as meteorology A weather or sounding balloon is a balloon which carries instruments aloft to send back information on atmospheric pressure, temperature, and humidity by means of a small, expendable measuring device called a radiosonde. To obtain wind data, they can be tracked by radar, radio direction finding, or navigation systems (such as the satellite based, medical treatment Angioplasty is the technique of mechanically widening a narrowed or obstructed blood vessel; typically as a result of atherosclerosis. An empty and collapsed balloon on a guide wire, known as a balloon catheter, is passed into the narrowed locations and then inflated to a fixed size using water pressures some 75 to 500 times normal blood pressure, military defense A barrage balloon is a large balloon tethered with metal cables, used to defend against low-level attack by aircraft by damaging the aircraft on collision with the cables, or at least making the attacker's approach more difficult. Some versions carried small explosive charges that would be pulled up against the aircraft to ensure its destruction, or transportation A balloon is a type of aircraft that remains aloft due to its buoyancy. A balloon travels by moving with the wind. It is distinct from an airship, which is a buoyant aircraft that can be propelled through the air in a controlled manner. A balloon's properties, including its low density The density of a material is defined as its mass per unit volume. The symbol of density is ρ . In some countries (for instance, in the United States), density is also defined as its weight per unit volume and relatively low cost, have led to a wide range of applications.

History

In 1643 Evangelista Torricelli Evangelista Torricelli ( pronunciation ; October 15, 1608 – October 25, 1647) was an Italian physicist and mathematician, best known for his invention of the barometer, an Italian physicist, showed air was something more than nothing Nothing is a concept that describes the absence of anything. Colloquially, the concept is often used to indicate the lack of anything relevant or significant, or to describe a particularly unimportant thing, event, or object. It is contrasted with something and everything. Nothingness is used more specifically as the state of nonexistence of.

The balloon was invented by the Portuguese priest (at 45 years of age) Bartolomeu de Gusmão Bartolomeu de Gusmão, born Bartolomeu Lourenço de Gusmão , was a priest and naturalist born in the Portuguese colony of Brazil, recalled for his early work on lighter-than-air airship design (brother of the Portuguese statesman Alexandre de Gusmão), and the first public exhibition was to the Portuguese Court on August 8, 1709, in the hall of the Casa da Índia in Lisbon Lisbon is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with a population of 564,477 within its administrative limits on a land area of 84.8 km2 (33 sq mi). The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 2.4 million on a area of 958 km2 (370 sq mi), it is the 12th most populous urban area in the European.

Applications

Decoration or entertainment

Party balloons are mostly made of natural latex tapped from rubber trees The Pará rubber tree , often simply called rubber tree, is a tree belonging to the family Euphorbiaceae and the most economically important member of the genus Hevea. It is of major economic importance because its sap-like extract (known as latex) can be collected and is the primary source of natural rubber, and can be filled with air, helium, water Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. Its molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state, water vapor or steam, or any other suitable liquid or gas. The rubber's elasticity makes the volume adjustable.

Filling the balloon with air can be done with the mouth, a manual or electric inflator (such as a hand pump A pump displaces a volume by physical or mechanical action. Pumps fall into five major groups: direct lift, displacement, velocity, buoyancy and gravity pumps. Their names describe the method for moving a fluid), or with a source of compressed gas.

When rubber balloons are filled with helium so that they float, they typically retain their buoyancy In physics, buoyancy is an upward acting force, caused by fluid pressure, that reduces an object's weight. If the object is either less dense than the liquid or is shaped appropriately (as in a boat), the force can keep the object afloat. This can occur only in a reference frame which either has a gravitational field or is accelerating due to a for only a day or so. The enclosed helium atoms escape through small pores in the latex which are larger than the helium atoms. Balloons filled with air usually hold their size and shape much longer.

Even a perfect rubber balloon eventually loses gas to the outside. The process by which a substance or solute In chemistry, a solution is a homogeneous mixture composed of two or more substances. In such a mixture, a solute is dissolved in another substance, known as a solvent migrates from a region of high concentration, through a barrier or membrane, to a region of lower concentration is called diffusion Molecular diffusion, often called simply diffusion, is a net transport of molecules from a region of higher concentration to one of lower concentration by random molecular motion. The result of diffusion is a gradual mixing of material. In a phase with uniform temperature, absent external net forces acting on the particles, the diffusion process. The inside of balloons can be treated with a special gel (for instance, the polymer A polymer is a large molecule composed of repeating structural units typically connected by covalent chemical bonds. While polymer in popular usage suggests plastic, the term actually refers to a large class of natural and synthetic materials with a wide variety of properties solution sold under the "Hi Float" brand) which coats the inside of the balloon to reduce the helium leakage, thus increasing float time to a week or longer.

Beginning in the late 1970s, some more expensive (and longer-lasting) foil balloons made of thin, unstretchable, less permeable metalized plastic films started being produced. These balloons have attractive shiny reflective surfaces and are often printed with color pictures and patterns for gifts and parties. The most important attribute of metalized nylon for balloons is its light weight, increasing buoyancy and its ability to keep the helium gas from escaping for several weeks. Foil balloons have been criticized for interfering with power lines Electric power transmission is the bulk transfer of electrical energy, a process in the delivery of electricity to consumers. A power transmission network typically connects power plants to multiple substations near a populated area. The wiring from substations to customers is referred to as electricity distribution, following the historic.^[1][2]

Professional balloon party decorators use electronic equipment to enable the exact amount of helium to fill the balloon. For non-floating balloons air inflators are used. Professional quality balloons are used, which differ from most retail packet balloons by being larger in size and made from 100% biodegradable latex.

Balloon modeling and balloons in art

Balloon artists are entertainers who twist and tie inflated tubular balloons into sculptures (see balloon modelling Balloon modelling or balloon twisting is the shaping of special modelling balloons into almost any given shape, often a balloon animal. People who create balloon animals and other twisted balloon sculptures are called Twisters. Twisters often work as busker, clowns, or restaurant entertainers). The balloons used for balloon sculpture are made of extra-stretchy rubber so that they can be twisted and tied without bursting. Since the pressure required to inflate a balloon is inversely proportional In mathematics, two quantities are said to be proportional if they vary in such a way that one of the quantities is a constant multiple of the other, or equivalently if they have a constant ratio to the diameter of the balloon^{[citation needed]}, these tiny tubular balloons are extremely hard to inflate initially. A pump is usually used to inflate these balloons.

Decorators may use hundreds of helium balloons to create balloon sculptures. Usually the round shape of the balloon restricts these to simple arches or walls, but on occasion more ambitious "sculptures" have been attempted. It is also common to use balloons as tables decorations for celebratory events. Balloons can sometimes be modeled to form different shapes of animals. Table decorations normally appear with 3 or 5 balloons on each bouquet. Ribbon is curled and added with a weight to keep the balloons from floating away.

Menno Baars is the first contemporary artist who turned a balloon into art. Within 5 days the Dutch artist painted a large primitive female nude on the huge balloon screen (800m2) in his typical violent colors and broad brush stroke. The balloon work of art was named " The independent Woman".

Balloon drops

A common decorative use for balloons is in balloon drops. In a balloon drop, a plastic bag or net filled with air-inflated balloons is suspended from a fixed height. Once released, the balloons fall onto their target area below. Balloon drops are commonly performed at New Year's Eve New Year's Eve or Old Year's Night is on 31 December, the final day of the Gregorian year, and the day before New Year's Day celebrations and at political rallies A demonstration is a form of nonviolent action by groups of people in favor of a political or other cause, normally consisting of walking in a march and a meeting to hear speakers. Actions such as blockades and sit-ins may also be referred to as demonstrations and conventions A convention, in the sense of a meeting, is a gathering of individuals who meet at an arranged place and time in order to discuss or engage in some common interest. The most common conventions are based upon industry, profession, and fandom. Trade conventions typically focus on a particular industry or industry segment, and feature keynote, but may also be performed at other celebrations, including graduations and weddings.

Balloon publicity

Balloons are often used for publicity at major events. Screen-printing Screen printing is a printing technique that uses a woven mesh to support an ink-blocking stencil. The attached stencil forms open areas of mesh that transfer ink as a sharp-edged image onto a substrate. A roller or squeegee is moved across the screen stencil, forcing or pumping ink past the threads of the woven mesh in the open areas processes can be used to print designs and company logos onto the balloons. In January 2008, the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York organized a display of 4,200 red balloons outside the United Nations building.^[3]

Water balloons

Water balloons A water balloon or water bomb is a latex rubber balloon filled with water. Because of how water balloons' latex breaks under stress, they are often thrown and launched at targets, resulting in wetness. They are commonly used in water balloon fights and as a practical joke device are thin, small rubber balloons filled with water instead of air or gas, and intended to be easily broken. They are usually used by children, who throw them at each other, trying to get each other wet, as a game A game is a structured activity, usually undertaken for enjoyment and sometimes used as an educational tool. Games are distinct from work, which is usually carried out for remuneration, and from art, which is more concerned with the expression of ideas. However, the distinction is not clear-cut, and many games are also considered to be work or art, competition, or practical joke A practical joke is a trick to purposely make someone feel foolish or victimized, usually for humor. Practical jokes differ from confidence tricks in that the victim finds out, or is let in on, the joke rather than being fooled into handing over money or other valuables. Practical jokes or pranks are typically lighthearted and made to make people. By forcing water out the open end of a water balloon, it is possible to use it as a makeshift water gun A water gun is a type of toy designed to shoot water. Similar to water balloons, the primary purpose of the toy is to soak another person in a game such as water warfare.

Balloon rockets

Balloons are often deliberately released, creating so called balloon rocket A balloon rocket is a balloon filled with air. Besides being simple toys, balloon rockets are a widely used teaching device to demonstrate physical principles and the functioning of a rocket or rocket balloon. Rocket balloons work because the elastic balloons contract on the air within them, and so when the mouth of the balloon is left open, the gas within the balloon shoots out, and, due to Newton's third law of motion Newton's laws of motion are three physical laws that form the basis for classical mechanics. They have been expressed in several different ways over nearly three centuries, and can be summarised as follows:, the balloon is propelled forward. This is fundamentally the same way that a rocket works.^[4]

Flying machines

Large balloons filled with hot air or buoyant gas (often hydrogen or helium) have been used as flying machines since the 18th century. The earliest flights were made with hot air balloons On Nov 21, 1783, in Paris, France, the first untethered manned flight was made by Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent d'Arlandes in a hot air balloon created on Dec 14, 1782 by the Montgolfier brothers. Recently, balloon envelopes have been made in all kinds of shapes, such as hot dogs, rocket ships, and the shapes of using air heated with a flame, or hydrogen; later, helium was used. Unlike airships An airship or dirigible is an aerostat or "lighter-than-air aircraft" that can be steered and propelled through the air using rudders and propellers or other thrust mechanisms. Unlike other aerodynamic aircraft such as fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, which produce lift by moving a wing, or airfoil, through the air, aerostatic, balloons' travel is directed exclusively by wind Wind is the flow of gases on a large scale. On Earth, wind consists of the bulk movement of air. In outer space, solar wind is the movement of gases or charged particles from the sun through space, while planetary wind is the outgassing of light chemical elements from a planet's atmosphere into space. Winds are commonly classified by their spatial.

Medicine

Angioplasty Angioplasty is the technique of mechanically widening a narrowed or obstructed blood vessel; typically as a result of atherosclerosis. An empty and collapsed balloon on a guide wire, known as a balloon catheter, is passed into the narrowed locations and then inflated to a fixed size using water pressures some 75 to 500 times normal blood pressure is a surgical procedure in which very small balloons are inserted into blocked or partially blocked blood vessels The blood vessels are the part of the circulatory system that transport blood throughout the body. There are three major types of blood vessels: the arteries, which carry the blood away from the heart; the capillaries, which enable the actual exchange of water and chemicals between the blood and the tissues; and the veins, which carry blood from near the heart. Once in place, the balloon is inflated to clear or compress arterial plaque, and to stretch the walls of the vessel, thus preventing myocardial infarction. A small stent can be inserted at the angioplasty site to keep the vessel open after the balloon's removal.^[5]

Balloon catheters are catheters that have balloons at their tip to keep them from slipping out. For example, the balloon of a Foley catheter is inflated when the catheter is inserted into the urinary bladder and secures its position.^[6]

Safety and environmental concerns

There has been some environmental concern over metallized nylon balloons, as they don't biodegrade or shred as rubber balloons do, and a helium balloon released into the atmosphere can travel a long way before finally bursting or deflating. Release of these types of balloons into the atmosphere is considered harmful to the environment. This type of balloon can also conduct electricity on its surface and released foil balloons can become entangled in power lines and cause power outages.^[7]

Released balloons can land almost anywhere, including on nature reserves or other areas where they pose a serious hazard to animals through ingestion or entanglement. Because of the harm to wildlife and the effect of litter on the environment, some jurisdictions even legislate to control mass balloon releases. Legislation proposed in Maryland, US, was named after Inky, a pygmy Sperm Whale who needed 6 operations after swallowing debris, the largest piece of which was a mylar balloon.^[8][9]

Anthony Andrady says that releases of latex balloons that descend into the sea pose a serious ingestion and/or entanglement hazard to marine animals because balloons exposed floating in seawater deteriorate much more slowly than those exposed in air.^[10]

See also

• Aerobot
• Balloon-carried light effect
• Foam balloon
• List of balloon uses
• Radiosonde
• Rockoon
• Speech balloon
• Two-balloon experiment

Notes

1. ^ "Metallic balloons spark controversy". Los Angeles Times. April 8, 2008. Retrieved April 15, 2010.]
2. ^ "New bill to ban certain balloons". ABC. April 8, 2008.Retrieved April 15, 2010.]
3. ^ 4,200 balloons released in NY to protest Qassam fire, By Neta Sela, Ynet News, January 24, 2008.
4. ^ Zimmerman Jones, Andrew. "Scientific Explanation: Why the Rocket Balloon Works". How to Create a Rocket Balloon. About:Physics. http://physics.about.com/od/classroomphysics/ss/balloonrocket_5.htm. Retrieved 2007-04-29.
5. ^ Berger, Alan (2006-05-30). "Angioplasty". Medical Encyclopedia. MedlinePlus. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002953.htm. Retrieved 2007-04-28.
6. ^ Bellis, Mary. "History of the Catheter - Balloon Catheter - Thomas Fogarty". About: Inventors. About. http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blcatheter.htm. Retrieved 2007-04-28.
7. ^ Atineh Haroutunian 6/3/2008 (818) 548-3381. "Mylar Balloons Spark Power Outages". Glendalewaterandpower.com. http://www.glendalewaterandpower.com/news.aspx?item=40. Retrieved 2009-09-15.
8. ^ "MARP Sponsors Inky Legislation". National Aquarium in Baltimore. http://www.aqua.org/oceanhealth_inkylegislation.html. Retrieved 2006-12-01.
9. ^ "Legislation regulating the release of balloons". Clean Virginia Waterways. http://www.longwood.edu/cleanva/balloonlaws.htm. Retrieved 2006-12-01.
10. ^ Andrady, A.L. (2006-08-06). "Plastics and Their Impacts in the Marine Environment". Proceedings of the International Marine Debris Conference on Derelict Fishing Gear and the Ocean Environment. Hawaii: Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary. p. 140.

Further reading

"Reader's Digest: Stories Behind Everyday Things"; New York: Reader's Digest, 1980.

External links

• Stratospheric balloons, history and present Historical recopilation project on the use of stratospheric balloons in the scientific research, the military field and the aerospace activity
• National trade association for the UK balloon industry
• National trade association for the Australasian balloon industry
• Royal Engineers Museum Royal Engineers and Aeronautics
• [1] Menno Baars hot air balloon
• Royal Engineers Museum Early British Military Ballooning (1863)

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