Movies | May 31, 2009 | 10 comments

Could UP Work In Real Life?

source: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/05/how-pixars-up-house-could-really-fly/

Image
Gregsalter
The Disney/Pixar cartoon epic, Up, is that about an old guy’s house being attached to a bunch of helium balloons which lift it up out of the city and on a wonderful adventure.
Could that actually work? And if so, how many balloons would you need?

Wolfe House Movers, which specializes in moving old structures and had Kendal Siegrist, a manager, take a look at the images from the movie to see how much the house might weigh.

“A building like that, you’d figure right around 100,000 pounds,” Siegrist suggested.

The caluation for this to possible would be the following: Air weighs about 0.078 pounds per cubic foot; helium weighs just 0.011 pounds per cubic foot. As Wired magazine suggests helium balloons experience a buoyant upward force that is equal to the air it displaces minus its own weight, or 0.067 pounds per cubic foot of helium balloon.

A simple calculation is that 100,000 pounds divided by 0.067 pounds per cubic foot — and you’ve got that it would take 1,492,537 cubic feet of helium to lift the house. Of course, you’d need some more balloons to keep getting it higher, but that’s our minimum.

Which would mean 112,000 balloons in there.
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10 comments // Could UP Work In Real Life?

  • masterzip
    • 0
      masterzip  

    • The only portion of this movie that you may be able to accomplish is if you come to the bay area and visit Fenton's Ice Creamery, it has been there for more than 50 years.
      If you go, I recommend the Black N Tan, w/ Toasted Almond Ice Cream...yum.

    • 2 years ago
  • saverio
    • 0
      saverio  
    • Image

    • Last summer a Brazilian priest tried to break a record for flying suspended by helium balloons.

      Evidence shows it was not a good idea.

    • 2 years ago
  • tangibleparadox
    • 0
      tangibleparadox  
    • saverio:

      O_O ... if it wasn't real, i'd say that was an amusing picture of a failed escape from clown college. (i'm a terrible person, i know.) i'll be sure not to try flying away attached to helium balloons.

    • 2 years ago
  • Joey_Vee
    • 0
      Joey_Vee  

    • No, cause in the movie he just ties it the the metal thing that holds the logs in his fireplace ($20 to the first person to know if that log holder has a real name). It is definitely the sturdiest thing to tie a couple hundred thousand balloons to.

    • 2 years ago
  • StrangE2U
  • thedez
  • bailey78
  • Mr_Costello
  • bjlawrence11
    • 0
      bjlawrence11  

    • Sounds like sound science, but I'll believe it when I see it... Perhaps we start alittle smaller: 1000 balloons, your little brother in a lawn chair, a good video camera...

    • 2 years ago
  • el_chivo
    • 0
      el_chivo  

    • The problem is not the number of balloons. Has mythbusters show it, the problem is that inflate all those balloons on time, because the helium is not going to stay in the balloons forever.

    • 2 years ago
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