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Hot Air Balloons - Calculating Lifting Force's banner
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Hot Air Balloons - Calculating Lifting Force

This calculator computes for the lifting force and the mass an air baloon can carry.

Calculation

Inputs


Baloon Vol
:10 m^3



Desnity of air
:1.205 kg/m^3



Density of hot air
:0.943 kg/^3



Gravity
:9.81 m/s^2


Output


Lifting Force
:25.70


FL =V(ρc  ρh) agF_L = V (ρ_c - ρ_h) a_g


Mass
:2.62


m = FL/agm\ =\ F_L/a_g


Parameters

Explanation

The lifting force of a hot air balloon is primarily determined by the buoyant force of the hot air relative to the cold air surrounding it.
When the air inside the balloon is heated, it expands and becomes less dense than the surrounding cooler air.
This difference in density causes the balloon to float upwards or in other words, it creates a lifting force.

The lifting force is calculated as:

FL =V(ρc  ρh) agF_L = V (ρ_c - ρ_h) a_g
As the lifiting force is equal to the weight or gravity force, the equations can be combined and rearranged to calculate the mass:

m = FL/agm\ =\ F_L/a_g

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