• dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Absolutely, but the scale of the balloons is a bit off. Nobody would be walking shoulder to shoulder like this. For a normal-ish 170lb/77kg individual your personal balloon would have to be a little under 6.5 meters across assuming it were filled with helium.

    Yes, I did the math.

    • surewhynotlem@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      You did the basic math, with your spherical balloon. What about giant cylinders? Then you could really pack it in.

      • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        Sure. You could do a cylinder of three quarters of a meter across which seems like a reasonable footprint for someone to stand in. That’d only have to be, uh, 325.5 meters tall to have the same volume.

          • ReanuKeeves@lemm.ee
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            3 days ago

            Your asshole “buddy” constantly throwing sharp objects at your balloon causing you to be wet all the time and laughing as you ask your mom if she can mend your massive cylinder for the 13th time this month

            • NeatoBuilds@lemmy.today
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              3 days ago

              I’ll just compress more helium and make the balloon metal so its stronger and holds more in a smaller space

              • ReanuKeeves@lemm.ee
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                3 days ago

                Your buddy has figured out that all they need to do is snip the ropes on your cylinder which will make it fly away and now you gotta ask your mom to buy you a new cylinder until your whole family is broke and homeless

      • You could use spherical balloons with really long, but different length, strings for each person. Of course you’d have to avoid tangling your balloons together while walking around like that and given wind can vary with elevation…

    • tyler@programming.dev
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      3 days ago

      You could use hydrogen, which is less dense than helium. Then if it catches on fire like the Hindenburg you’d already be in the water.

    • Neverclear@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      3 days ago

      Note that you wouldn’t need 77 kg worth of bouyancy from the balloon. The shoes would provide some lift, more if you made them out of some type of foam.

      • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        This I am fairly certain we do not have the technology to achieve. Anything vacuum filled that large would need to have walls so thick so as to completely negate any buoyancy effect. I don’t know of any modern material that would simultaneously be rigid, strong, and light enough.

        • A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          Cool sci-fi concept tho

          What other sorts of random issues would be solved by this super material :opens notepad: I mean, everything, right? It would have to be so strong, so light and so economical. You could make actual BattleMechs from it that wouldn’t just sink into every surface they walk on. Shit, Dyson Spheres I guess.

          …so why would we use weird balloon floaties? Isn’t it fun how technology answers it’s own questions?

    • Cruxifux@feddit.nl
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      3 days ago

      Ok but hear me out

      One really BIG balloon with rope systems you could hook on to so multiple people could walk around under the same balloon area.

      • BootyBuccaneer@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        3 days ago

        Revolutionary. I hear hot air is really good for inflating things. I wonder if you could use some sort of flame thrower to keep the balloon afloat.