I've read some about the age of the zepplins and dirgibles. Fascinating.
My understanding is that a gas less dense than air (hot air being less dense
than cold air...so hot air ballons work) displaces more than the combined
weight of the gas in question plus the device and cargo...thus it lifts....
What is less dense than nothing?
How about a vacumn dirgible. That is...instead of pressurizing a
ballon....evacuate a pressure vessel. If the weight of the volume of the air
displaced exceeds the weight of the pressure vessel it should float..
Neal Stephenson alluded to such devices in "diamond age". Are they possible
now?.....using geodesic type structures and hi tensile material?
Can such a structure be made light enough?
EvMick
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