| ▲ | emsign 7 hours ago |
| Balloon gas is ~20% oxygen, so your kids don't go unconscious while doing the funny voices. |
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| ▲ | icwtyjj 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| https://www.bocgases.ie/files/balloon_grade_helium_factsheet... says 95% helium and 1% oxygen while https://dan.org/alert-diver/article/helium-gas-purity-what-i... says 97.5% helium but very unlikely for it to be as low as 80% |
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| ▲ | inaros an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | "An overview of the different common grades of helium" - https://zephyrsolutions.com/what-are-the-different-grades-of... Grade 6 (6.0 helium = 99.9999% purity)
The closest to 100% pure helium, 6.0 helium is used in the manufacturing of semiconductor chips –
Grade 5.5 (5.5 helium = (99.9995% purity)
Like 6.0 helium, 5.5 ultra pure helium gas is typically considered “research grade,” also used in chromatography and semiconductor processing Grade 5 (5.0 helium = 99.999% purity)
This high purity grade helium is also widely used for gas chromatography, mass spectrometry, and specific laboratory research when higher purity gases are not necessary, as well as for weather balloons and blimps. Grade 4.8 (4.8 helium = 99.998% purity)
The highest of the “industrial grade” heliums, 4.8 grade helium is often used by the military. The rest is classified... Grade 4.7 (4.7 helium = 99.997% purity)
A “Grade-A” industrial helium, 99.997% helium is mostly used in cryogenic applications and for pressurizing and purging Grade 4.6 (4.6 helium = 99.996% purity)
Grade 4.6 industrial helium is used for weather balloons, blimps, in leak detection Grade 4.5 (4.5 helium = 99.995% purity)
Often the grade most commonly referred to when people say “industrial grade,” 99.995% helium is most commonly used in the balloon industry Grade 4 (4.0 helium and lower = 99.99% purity)
Any helium that is 99.99% and down into the high 80 percents is within the range of purities referred to collectively as “balloon grade helium.” | |
| ▲ | HPsquared 35 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Helium for diving is going to be a different mix than what's used for balloons. In diving it's used to reduce the partial pressure of oxygen, and also to quickly diffuse back out of tissues when returning to the surface. Very different application! | |
| ▲ | bee_rider 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | I wonder if one of you could be going by number of atoms, and the other could be going by weight? |
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| ▲ | meroes 19 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I can personally attest that this is not foolproof, if it is even the case. Those helium tanks you can buy for large parties knocked me out as a kid. Lost consciousness fell to the ground, blacked out. Supervise your kids if you buy one! |
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| ▲ | kerridge0 an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I believe that that's the stuff you buy in the shop, the non-refillable containers. If you buy a proper refillable balloon gas cylinder it's the higher grade stuff. Source: bought the shop stuff, got disappointed, bought the cylinder, happy. |
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| ▲ | rootusrootus 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| You sure about that? Everything I've ever heard says that balloon gas is generally grade 4, which is 99.99% pure. Not good enough for MRI, but quite a lot better than 80%. |
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| ▲ | Jblx2 an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | >99.99% pure. Not good enough for MRI What is the reason that MRI needs grade 6 vs grade 4 helium? I'm imagining that the superconducting wire is within a cryostat filled with liquid helium. Doesn't seem like there would be any appreciably partial pressure of things like nitrogen or oxygen at 4 Kelvin. I imagine the reactivity of oxygen is pretty low at 4 K as well. How much dissolved oxygen or nitrogen can liquid helium support? And how much solidifies out and sinks to the bottom of the cryostat? | |
| ▲ | pfdietz 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Economically I expect it wouldn't be that pure, since it doesn't have to be that pure to provide lift, and party balloons are not trying to maximize lift. | | |
| ▲ | rootusrootus an hour ago | parent [-] | | Out of curiosity I did a minor amount of research to get an idea. Turns out that you are right, some balloon gas is 80%. Specifically, the "Balloon Time" tanks you can buy at places like Target say "not less than 80%" helium. On the other hand, I went to AirGas and a few other suppliers and they seemed to have 95%-97.0% helium gas as their definition for balloon grade. | | |
| ▲ | pfdietz an hour ago | parent [-] | | Perhaps "balloon grade" here is not "party balloon grade". Weather balloons? Research balloons? | | |
| ▲ | rootusrootus an hour ago | parent [-] | | My guess is that places like AirGas aren't really supplying many weather or research balloons. I suspect the easier answer is 'Balloon Time is low grade crap aimed at people who don't know any better and just want to pick up some balloon gas while grocery shopping.' It's like the difference between people who go to a gas station to refill propane tanks, and people who swap them at Home Depot. (though the smart fellers do swap at Home Depot occasionally, if they need a fresher tank...) Definitely worth knowing what you're getting, in any case, so you don't get ripped off, and so you can actually get that lawn chair contraption into the sky. |
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| ▲ | bryan0 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| source? the value I found is 97.5%+ helium for party balloons:
https://www.grecogas.com/learn-our-industry/your-complete-gu... |
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| ▲ | stevenwoo an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| People commit suicide with it because it's supposedly painless and quick. |
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| ▲ | kylehotchkiss an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| We're dumb enough now to have forgotten history. Moar hydrogen party balloons. Making partying fun again! |
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| ▲ | shmeeed 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| [flagged] |
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| ▲ | qwertox 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| This is very likely not true. |
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| ▲ | estimator7292 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | Would you like to offer a rebuttal more well reasoned and thought out than "nuh-uh"? You have the entire collected knowledge of mankind at your fingertips. You could do 30 seconds of research and find an answer better than "I don't think that sounds right". | | |
| ▲ | gjm11 20 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | | What is asserted without evidence may be dismissed without evidence. (The form in which Christopher Hitchens actually stated "Hitchens' Razor" is more symmetrical but unfortunately wrong: "What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence". Anything can be asserted without evidence! It's only when something actually has been, in a given context, that dismissing it is -- in the same context -- a reasonable course of action.) | |
| ▲ | loloquwowndueo 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | > You could do 30 seconds of research So could you, right? |
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