Would filling an inflatable suit with helium make you lighter? Apparently not...

11 posts / 0 new

Sun, 04/17/2016 - 11:49

Another Canadian Guy

Browsing around for latex suit info and the like I stumbled across a page where someone inflated their suit with helium. From Cerigon's page:

But I did it anyway cause I could. I wondered if the suit would inflate, or feel different. Even if it would take some minuscule weight off. I discovered:

-It feels lighter, and fills bigger than air but inside feels less pressure.

-Helium is much cooler than air.

-Not even a half a pound came off... sadly (i honestly thought it would give a slight difference)

- a 100 balloon fill tank, fills the suit 2ce.

When asked what it was like she posted: "

Its fun! NOT CHEAP, but fun :3 The difference was not in weight, but was how it was filling. Actually was a little scary to have all the pressure at the top. Cause like.. my legs were almost empty, and tottally free, where the top was still easy to move, but BIG and light.. so i just couldnt gauge anything XP

So there you have it. Even though it's been theorized on the forums that it wouldn't make much of a difference there's photographic proof of it now. You can view the image below should you wish to see it, but as far as I am aware there isn't a video of it inflating. If someone finds a video please leave a link here.

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/12024957/

I'd still love to give it a shot myself though, so if anyone has a spare tank of Helium they'd like to send my way it'd me much appreciated ; )

(Not on here too often, replies might be slow.)

Tue, 04/19/2016 - 11:16

deleted_20180328 (not verified)

I doubt you could get the suit to lift off even with nobody in it. That rubber weighs a lot.

Tue, 04/19/2016 - 12:18

(Reply to #2) #3

blowup_boy

I flew to germany a few years ago to be in a music video and supply the inflatable suits. https://youtu.be/kbaaSJgZWbg

We did fill one of my x suits with helium (no one in it) The weirdest thing was it actually stood up by itself as it was blowing up, due to the lighter gas inside. Whilst it didn't float away on it's own (a line was needed to make it look like it was floating) It was much much lighter and would float down to earth slower.

I guess due to it's size, it was enough gas to counter act the weight of the suit.

Hisssssssssssss.. ...uh oh!!

Wed, 04/20/2016 - 06:31

(Reply to #3) #4

Another Canadian Guy

I was wondering how they did that shot. I did notice the string (sorry, videographer here!) but still curious to hear. I did wonder if an empty suit would float filled with helium.

(Not on here too often, replies might be slow.)

Tue, 04/19/2016 - 15:11

danielsangeo

Filling a suit you're wearing with helium WILL make you "lighter" per se...but only imperceptibly. In order to generate enough lift for both you, the suit, and the helium itself (all of which does have their own weight) to become buoyant and/or float off the ground, you will need a suit MUCH larger than anything you can really buy.

If you want to imagine what such a suit would look like if one was made, imagine arm, leg and a head hole put into a hot air balloon. Then stick your head, arms and legs into those holes then inflate the hot air balloon.

That would be about the size you'd need to generate that kind of lift. So, your suit would look kind of like this:

http://i.imgur.com/VjEKdop.jpg

Not really a suit at this point. XD

Tue, 04/19/2016 - 23:37

(Reply to #4) #6

curse_one

I think helium is a lot lighter than hot air, I'm not sure by how much but I imagine it could be somewhat smaller than a hot air balloon. I think a big difference is the material of the suit, if it's made out of heavy rubber it would need to be really huge vs if it was made out of parachute material. In the case of a hot air balloon they can lift not only a basket, a liquid propane tank but also usually a couple people. I think if a suit was made out of similar parachute type material and then inflated with helium it could be much smaller and be rather bouyant. I'm fairly certain a suit could be designed that could float a person when inflated with helium, although I'm not sure if one's head would still be able to stick out of it...

Wed, 04/20/2016 - 03:54

Cutter

At least we know that someone has actually tried it, and not much happened.

Wed, 04/20/2016 - 20:45

(Reply to #6) #8

Another Canadian Guy

It's on a list of things I wish to try, but of course, the main reason being that amount of helium would be rather costly.

(Not on here too often, replies might be slow.)

Wed, 04/20/2016 - 07:49

deleted_20180328 (not verified)

It also depends if you used pure helium vs balloon gas. Balloon gas has air mixed in for safety (and price). Hence why if you leave a balloon gas inflated balloon it'll still be part inflated after all the helium has dispersed. Obviously you'll get less lift.

A suit on it's own may fly with pure helium. But with balloon gas will not.

Wed, 04/20/2016 - 20:44

(Reply to #8) #10

Another Canadian Guy

It's not very much air, though, correct? Wasn't it something like 90-95% helium and the rest nitrogen/oxygen?

(Not on here too often, replies might be slow.)

Wed, 04/20/2016 - 22:20

#11

NameTaken

You actually would be able to float with helium if you had a lot of it. The balloon lawn chair flight fad is a good representative of how much helium you would need to float away. Theoretically you could apply this to a giant suit, but it would be expensive and likely fuck up somewhere along the line and kill you if anyone actually tried it. If the pressure of having a gigantic inflato-suit on you didn't, than a parachute screw-up probably would.

Would filling an inflatable suit with helium make you lighter? Apparently not...

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