Given its scarcity, helium should be more expensive, to the point where filling party balloons with it is decadent profligacy.
End nuclear fusion!
Submitted 14 hours ago by FlyingSquid@lemmy.world to [deleted]
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/118e2115-efc4-4f25-9869-1a7dd2080ede.png
Comments
AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space 9 hours ago
el_abuelo@programming.dev 8 hours ago
I mean it is expensive, it’s just the amount required for a balloon is insignificant and thus seems cheap.
As a diver who uses helium I can tell you it is, compared to air, so much more expensive they actually charge me for it (rather than just rolled into the cost of a dive) - to the sum of about $300 a dive - depending on depth.
FeatherConstrictor@sh.itjust.works 8 hours ago
What is helium used for when diving?
Abnorc@lemm.ee 5 hours ago
I want a balloon full of uranium hexafluoride.
cRazi_man@lemm.ee 13 hours ago
We should go back to filling them with hydrogen.
Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 hour ago
When I was in school decades ago, my science teacher brought in a big balloon filled with hydrogen and lit the string on fire without telling us that it was filled with hydrogen.
I could feel the explosion in my bones. It was neat.
I’m not sure you could do that in schools today.
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
Someonelol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 hours ago
The alternative is to use extremely limited quantities of gas crucial for MRIs, chip making, metallurgy, and a few other high tech applications. But hey, pretty balloons.
shadowedcross@sh.itjust.works 12 hours ago
Would make for more exciting birthday parties.
Rolive@discuss.tchncs.de 7 hours ago
Oh the huge manatee!
JusticeForPorygon@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
Am I missing a joke? Airships used hydrogen gas
sirico@feddit.uk 6 hours ago
Brought to you by big hydrogen.
PenisDuckCuck9001@lemmynsfw.com 10 hours ago
Fuck! How am I going to refuel this fusion reactor I brought back from the future? You can’t have shit these days.
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
May I suggest food waste from someone’s garbage can? I hear that works.
julysfire@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
There will absolutely still be a customer that takes a balloon from behind the sign and asks for it to be filled up in the store.
Beldarofremulak@lemmy.world 11 hours ago
They will demand it or else poor Kayla’lin 'da Leeigh Lynn Lee’s princess party will be ruined.
Hideakikarate@sh.itjust.works 11 hours ago
I think you just summoned an Elder God.
AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 11 hours ago
Just use hot air. Lots of that to go around.
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 11 hours ago
I’m afraid it’s already in use by politicians.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
I could have sworn they were hot air generators
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
why don’t we just bring a shitload back from saturn or something
bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 13 hours ago
I really wonder what power plants will do with the helium once they get fusion working. Maybe a balloon business on the side isn’t such a bad idea.
subtext@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
I mean too much Helium isn’t a problem. It’s one of the few (only?) elements that will just disappear if you don’t do anything with it.
It’s light enough that it rises to the very tip top of the earth’s atmosphere and is then stripped away by solar radiation. That’s why is a depleting natural resource, not because it’s burned or used or anything, but because it just escapes.
dsilverz@thelemmy.club 7 hours ago
It’s one of the few (only?) elements that will just disappear if you don’t do anything with it.
** Lavoisier crying noises **
saigot@lemmy.ca 11 hours ago
In a perfect world stick it in a secondary reactor and make lithium. But that’s obviously even further off than hydrogen fusion.
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
An MRI scanner in every home!
GladiusB@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
It takes a lot to get those working and stay running. I am one of the guys that supplies it. Well over 100 liters to even start it.
Warl0k3@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
The amount of helium produced is truly miniscule, in the order of a few cubic centimeters. They’ll just pump it into the ground somewhere, assuming we ever get fusion working
CleoTheWizard@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
Good thing I finally finished voice training and no longer need Helium to pass 👍
clickyello@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
nice keming on that one
Cagi@lemmy.ca 52 minutes ago
Mylar balloons should be outlawed. They get sent free and land on power lines WAY too often. Over a thousand mylar balloons caused power outages are recorded in just Southern California alone in a typical year. The cost of repairing the damage might even exceed the revenue of mylar balloon sales.