EvMick@aol.com wrote:
> 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
Such ideas are not new, but the problem with a vacuum is that it adds an inverse
pressure, and its extremely difficult to build a structure light enough to float,
but strong enough to keep all gas out and prevent implosion.
Ballons and dirigibles do not gain their lift from difference in pressure, but
difference in mass. COmpared to oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere, hydrogen is not that
much different from vacuum to gain much from using a vacuum. Using a heated
hydrogen balloon is the most efficient you can get for the least effort.
-- TANSTAAFL!!!Michael S. Lorrey Owner, Lorrey Systems http://www.lorrey.com ArtLocate.Com http://www.artlocate.com Director, Grafton County Fish & Game Assoc. http://www.lorrey.com/gcfga/ Member, Extropy Institute http://www.extropy.org Member, National Rifle Association http://www.nra.org "Live Free or Die, Death is not the Worst of Evils." - General John Stark
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