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Balloon Boy: Was There Enough Helium in the Flying Saucer Shaped Balloon?

I'm writing from the perspective that anyone stumbling upon this post knows the background to this story.

 

I must admit being overly intrigued by the story.  Once the balloon landed, I started having general thoughts on whether there was even enough total helium to lift a small boy, not to even mention take him to heights of 8000 feet.

 

Turns out, others are thinking and posting on the same thing.  A few links (unverified information, but a good place to start narrowing in on the answer):

 

http://liveatthewitchtrials.blogspot.com/2009/10/boy-in-balloon-did-balloon-have-enough.html

 

http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2009/10/why-falcon-henne-was-never-really-balloon-boy/

 

My own general thought was comparing the visible size of the saucer and 'guesstimating' the equivalent number of helium filled party balloons - would there be enough lift?  I began to have doubts.

 

One of those links above indicates there would have been theoretically enough helium to lift a 50 lb boy, but they noted there should have been some sort of distortion of the otherwise soft profile while in flight - much like a weather balloon.  Such a distortion was not present - but that's an observation made in hindsight.

 

I have a chemical engineer friend who might be looking into this further for me. He did make a point, however, that when considering equal volumes of helium and hot air, that the helium has much more lift.  (Think of two balloons, one inflated with helium, one with naturally forced exhalation of breath.  One floats.)

 

Just some thoughts and links.

I Didn't Know That!!: Nobel Prize Details

Entering a 3-4 day lull between two major busy periods, I decided I needed to post a few times.  Coincidentally, I opened my email account associated with this blog and found my wife was thinking the same thing.

Julie and I had a discussion last night about the Nobel Peace Prize being awarded to Obama, and we had a straightforward (and very mild) disagreement about which country the somewhat misguided committee members represented - ie where is the prize deliberated and then awarded.  Julie? 'Norway.'  Tim? 'Sweden.'

Being fairly confident of my answer, citing King Olaf and Stockholm and things like that, I was not even planning to 'run to the computer' and try to 'prove it.'  (Sadly, I've done that sort of foolish thing before. :-- (  )

Logging in early this morning, I scanned some news headlines that were 'Monday morning quarterbacking' the Obama Peace Prize announcement and one of them mentioned the 'Norwegian selection committee.'  Huh???  Read on.....

It seems we are both right, but Julie is exactly right about the Peace Prize.  When the Nobel prizes were created, the honored disciplines ranged from chemistry to medicine to peace - later economics was added.  Also, when they were created, there existed some form of political union between Sweden and Norway, and that fact led to the Nobel group splitting responsibility for the prizes between the two countries.  Most of the prizes are based from and awarded from Stockholm, Sweden, but the Nobel Peace Prize is based from and awarded from Oslo, Norway.  Both sites have Nobel laureate celebratory galas on December 10 every year.  Isn't that interesting??

And, oh yeah....Julie - you were right!!  I was wrong.  I love you.