Where to toy balloons go?

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Article #9241

#9241

From: Peter Newman
Date: Wed, 26 Jan 1994 12:23

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Where do buoyant toy balloons end up?  

I was pondering this question after watching a balloon (in the shape
of a parrot about 50cm long) ascend until it was out-of-sight at
about cloud level.  It seemed to me that the plastics that such
toys are made from could probably hold a 1 atmosphere pressure
inside, so there is no reason it wouldn't reach orbit!  

Or is there?  And if they _do_ make orbit (or beyond), how long would they
last?

The idea of the Shuttle running into an orbiting parrot is kind
of weird...:-)

Pete Newman
___________________________________________________
p.newman@ucl.ac.uk
Astronomy II, Physics & Astronomy Dept.
University College, London WC1E 6BT, England
voice: +44-71-387-4120 fax: +44-71-380-7145
wannabe: researching extragalactic distance scale
___________________________________________________
Happy is he who has been able to learn the causes of things -- Virgil

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From: zcapk43@ucl.ac.uk (Peter Newman)
Subject: Where to toy balloons go?
Message-ID: <1994Jan26.122350.67750@ucl.ac.uk>
Sender: p.newman@ucl.ac.uk <Peter Newman> 
Date: Wed, 26 Jan 1994 12:23:50 GMT
Organization: Bloomsbury Computing Consortium
Keywords: balloons, orbit 
Followup-To: sci.astro
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