[Guest]

ok I saw this on a different site (forget where or what I was doing there) so after an extensive search, I did not find it here...there was quite a debate over the answer on the site I saw it on, so I thought I'd post it here to see what some of you guys think.

Here's the set up: You're driving down the road, and have a balloon filled with helium tied to the floor. If you were to take a sharp right turn, what way will the balloon lean? Why?

[Guest]

it would lean to the left relatively before it comes back to being centered. just plain inertia. what other answers did people come up with?

[Guest]

Interesting...

']Initially I would agree that centripetal force would throw the balloon to the left but helium appears to act against gravity when in the presence of the heavier air around it. So one could argue that when you take a sharp right turn and all of the heavier air in the car gets pushed to the left, it would push the lighter helium into the turn or to the right of the vehicle. My inclination would be to say that it would lean to the right if the windows were rolled up and to the left if the windows were rolled down. I do tend to over-think sometimes.

Edited July 5, 2009 by jelightcap

[Guest]

EDIT TO THE OP: All the windows are up..sorry I forgot to mention that

[Guest]

I think the Balloon would tip right on a right turn since centrifical force would push heavier items out, lighter items would be pushed inward (lighter, is of course relative to the air in the vehicle) I'm not sure ... but this makes sense

[Guest]

I agree with Jelightcap... another way to analyse this is by using archimedes principle - lighter (less denser) objects in a heavier medium. Only in this case, the system has been rotated by 90 degrees.

[Guest]

A helium balloon does not "act against gravity" It is acted upon by gravity just like everything else in the universe. It is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the fluid it displaces. Also it is acted upon by the other laws of physics. As such when the friction of the tires cause the car to turn right inertia will make the balloon to continue straight until it is acted upon by the string that tethers it to the car. It would seem to lean to the left to an observer in the car. as for centrifugal causing the balloon to shift right, it would have to overcome the inertia.

[Magic_luver101]

I would have to say it dependes on the type of ballon. If it was a maylar i think it would ast according to the laws of inertia and "move" to the left. If the ballon was a normal party ballon I think it would act with the laws of bonciy and there for "move" to the inside or right.

Edited July 5, 2009 by Magic_luver101

[Guest]

It does not lean any direction as it will stay straight up - it is filled with helium, which is pulling it up in the air

[Guest]

The law of inertia says that an obect in motion will remain in motion until acted on by another force. Therefore the balloon, along with all the other objects in the car (including the air) will all continue moving straight while the car veers right, making the balloon appear to move to the left, until it is acted upon by the string holding.

[Guest]

I dont know how i came to this answer but

i think the balloon would stay in one spot. Because it is tied to the floor how is it supposed to move? if you get what im saying. and i just think it would stay there.

i think lol

[Guest]

The balloon does move to the right. The heavier air moves to the left, forcing the balloon to the right. Just like how heavier air forces a balloon up normally.

[Guest]

because of the law of inertia i would think that it would move left and then right. it would only move left for about a fraction of a second but it would

[Guest]

the mere fact that it is floating means its weight is less then the upwards force therefore the force (or rather acceleration) that mostly depends on its weight will probably be overcome by the force that mostly depends on everything elses weight

so I would think it would lean a lil left at the beginning as it is so light it will move faster then the heavier air. quickly though the heavier air will go left pushing the balloon right

[Guest]

The fact that it is a helium baloon does not negate the fact that it has mass and is moving with all other objects in the car. All objects in the car are moving in the same direction at the same velocity. If the car were to turn, slow or accelerate all objects inside will move in the oposite direction until they cath up with the car's speed and bearing.

It's like a humming bird or toy helicopter in the back of a tractor trailer. As long as the velocity and direction is matched they won't crash into the walls.

[Guest]

Inertia pushes everything toward the left side of the car and the balloon, being lighter than the surrounding air, is squeezed to the right where the air pressure is lowest

[bushindo]

Link to detailed answers by people with physics degrees

http://www.physlink.com/Education/askexperts/ae683.cfm

Edited July 6, 2009 by bushindo

[Guest]

This is a discussion about an old circumstance but with a twist thrown in. The problem is generally given as a helium balloon floating in a moving conveyance; the question being, if the conveyance stops, accelerates, or turns, what happens to the balloon. The answer is nothing, as the balloon and the gas it contains exactly displace their own weight of air. It is easier to envision with a closed glass, filled with a liquid, and having a ball floating aimlessly in the liquid. To float in the liquid, the ball must have the same mass as the volume of liquid it displaces. No matter in which direction the glass is accelerated/decelerated, the ball will remain aimlessly floating.

But this problem has a twist. The balloon is tied down. Thus, the balloon must displace its own weight of air, plus at least the weight of the tethering media, which may be a string, a cable, or an anchor chain. If the buoyancy of the ballon exactly balances the weight of itself and the tether (ie no tension on the tether), The tendancy of the tether to move left (relatively) when the conveyance turns right will balance the tendancy of air pressure to move the lighter than air balloon to the right, and the balloon will not lean at all. If, however, there is tension on the tether, the balloon,s tendancy to move right will overcome the tether's tendancy to move left and the balloon/tether system will lean to the right. The amount of the lean is proportional to the amount of tension in the tether.

[Guest]

Link to detailed answers by people with physics degrees

http://www.physlink.com/Education/askexperts/ae683.cfm

The easiest way I can explain it (taken from what I read) is that when you turn, the air molecules rush to the outter edge as do the other objects in your car would 'want' to do..that air builds up and becomes more dense than the air on the opposite side of the car, and acts as a second gravitational force..which in return pushes the lighter helium filled balloon towards the inside of the turn...the same applies if you were to accelerate (the balloon would lean forward) or decelerate (the balloon would lean back)

here's a link that explains it pretty well.(with cutting edge drawings)

I also found a site that had a guy that tested it out, and was quite perplexed how it works that way...he also tied a 'regular' balloon from the dome light, and a helium balloon to his shifter, or floor...did some quick accelerations, heavy braking, and sharp turns, and watched the two balloons move in opposite directions from one another.

Way to go to those that got it right ...and thanks Bushindo for that link..it's alot better than the site I originally found this problem on. The site I saw it on had quite a few people arguing that it would go the other way, but then a reply from some physics person would explain how it works, and that's why I posted it here.

Might be a fun experiment to test out. I'll try it out and get back to you guys....well I probably won't get back to ya, but I'll still try it out

Edited July 6, 2009 by James8421

[Guest]

ok I saw this on a different site (forget where or what I was doing there) so after an extensive search, I did not find it here...there was quite a debate over the answer on the site I saw it on, so I thought I'd post it here to see what some of you guys think.

Here's the set up: You're driving down the road, and have a balloon filled with helium tied to the floor. If you were to take a sharp right turn, what way will the balloon lean? Why?

I think Balloon will lean about 65-75degree toward the normal

[Guest]

The easiest way to demonstrate the effect is as follows. Take an ordinary milk bottle and fill it with water. Now take an ordinary wine-bottle cork and fasten it with a short length of thread to a metal weight and drop the cork and weight into the water so that they sink to the bottom. When one slides the milk bottle in a certain direction the cork will angle forwards, not backwards. Just because the water in the milk bottle is transparent does not mean that its density (and hence its inertia) is less than that of the cork; quite the reverse, since the cork is buoyed up by the water.

When I was teaching Physics, I often asked what was denser, cream or milk. Many pupils stated, without thinking, that cream was denser, until I pointed out that cream floats on top of milk. They were confused by the observation that cream is thicker than milk, not denser.

[Guest]

the balloon will move to the right from its position before the turn because the heavier air will go to the left forcing the lighter balloon the other direction.