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From what I've heard, party balloons often use nitrogen nowadays. Helium has become too expensive and the consumer won't notice the difference until a few days
by fluidcruft 13y ago
From what I've heard, party balloons often use nitrogen nowadays. Helium has become too expensive and the consumer won't notice the difference until a few days after the sale (if at all).
- ginko 13y agoPure nitrogen basically has the same density as air (Composing 80% of it). So a party balloon filled with nitrogen wouldn't float.
- fluidcruft 13y agoI'm pretty sure that's what happened. Party City had a whole sign apologizing for the switch to nitrogen about the same time we were having trouble getting dewars to refill our scanner and I talked to the owner about it so I don't think it was confusing the floating balloons with the other balloons. But you're right it makes little sense in terms of buoyancy and that hadn't occurred to me at the time. Maybe it was actually a switch to a helium/nitrogen blend. I can also see replacing helium completely for those balloons that get tied into shapes (animals etc), but that's a tiny sliver of the balloon market I'd assume.
- meepmorp 13y agoI've got a 2 year old, and just judging by parties I go to, nitrogen isn't being used in party balloons very much (at all?). And, hey, why not just use air?
- zik 13y ago"Party gas" is partly nitrogen and partly helium. Nitrogen by itself doesn't have lift.