Save the Helium!!!

Okay, so the title sounds like a bit of a joke, and it is somewhat as intended as such... but really, what do you know about Helium??? Helium (http://www.howstuffworks.com/helium4.htm) Helium is largely captured from Natural Gas deposits. But what do you know about natural resources??? We deplete them at staggering rates. Take for example: Coal. 'Nuff said.

But what does this have to do with Helium?? Well, if you read the rest of the article on that link, you'd see that Helium is so light and lacking density that it just keeps rising and escapes into space. Okay, so we have some chemist whip up a batch of Helium in a lab. No can do, sweetcheeks. Think of the sun, and how much energy that ball of gas gives off. That my friends is the energy of fusing 2 hydrogens into one helium. There is no way we are going to harness that technology any time in the forseeable future.

What can you do about it? Don't buy helium balloons. It's a waste of a natural resource that we CAN'T make more of. Helium has practical purposes in technology, so why should we use it all up in our human desires to see something float??? We can get the same effect from putting balloons on sticks instead of limp strings.

Just a thought for the day.

I hear green peace is taking applications.:D:D

That damn sun wasting hydrogen like that. Something should be done! :D













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Originally posted by YogsVR4
That damn sun wasting hydrogen like that. Something should be done! :D

It's making Helium... Hydrogen we've got ;) It just burns like MOFO when it's gaseous. ;)

And just what are we going to do with all the Helium we save? Suck it in and sing "In the Jungle" a zillion times?

Originally posted by Heep
And just what are we going to do with all the Helium we save? Suck it in and sing "In the Jungle" a zillion times?

Perhaps it can be used to as a weight reduction device for the extremely obese.













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Originally posted by Heep
And just what are we going to do with all the Helium we save? Suck it in and sing "In the Jungle" a zillion times?

It has value b/c it's a noble/inert gas and it is highly non-reactive. It can be used in situations where something needs to be extremely cold, but not freeze, and due to it's largely expansive and light nature, it is at only VERY cold temperatures that helium becomes a liquid, let alone a solid.

Damn chemistry students.Their links,just like the helium are noble/inert.Anatomy students give great link!:D

Originally posted by saturntangerine


It has value b/c it's a noble/inert gas and it is highly non-reactive. It can be used in situations where something needs to be extremely cold, but not freeze, and due to it's largely expansive and light nature, it is at only VERY cold temperatures that helium becomes a liquid, let alone a solid.

Lol, so again I ask, "What are we going to do with all the helium we save?" :D:D

Originally posted by saturntangerine


It has value b/c it's a noble/inert gas and it is highly non-reactive. It can be used in situations where something needs to be extremely cold, but not freeze, and due to it's largely expansive and light nature, it is at only VERY cold temperatures that helium becomes a liquid, let alone a solid.

Just to be a bit anal. Nobody has ever actually seen solid helium. The freezing point of helium is what defines absolute zero and nobody has quite made it that far. Close, but not quite.













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Originally posted by YogsVR4


Just to be a bit anal. Nobody has ever actually seen solid helium. The freezing point of helium is what defines absolute zero and nobody has quite made it that far. Close, but not quite.

Um, the Kelvin scale is based off of the freezing point of HYDROGEN. :right:

But Hydrogen has been close to freezing... Problem is that the vacuum gets holes in it, and even by moving it electromagnetically, it creates too much heat to allow the temp to cause the Hydrogen to freeze.

Originally posted by Heep


Lol, so again I ask, "What are we going to do with all the helium we save?" :D:D

Who knows what we might need it for... perhaps it'll serve a purpose in computer technology in the near future. I'm not entirely up to date with that sort of use, but I know it does indeed serve as some sort of aid in comp. tech.

Originally posted by saturntangerine


Um, the Kelvin scale is based off of the freezing point of HYDROGEN. :right:

But Hydrogen has been close to freezing... Problem is that the vacuum gets holes in it, and even by moving it electromagnetically, it creates too much heat to allow the temp to cause the Hydrogen to freeze.

Nope - the freezing point of helium.

Hydrogen freezes at -259.14 deg C (See
the CRC Handbook of Chmistry and Physics).
http://www.polysurfacesbookstore.com/pages/3013.html?source=overture

As for Helium

I quote "At atmospheric pressure, helium becomes liquid at the lowest of all boiling points, -452o F (-269°C) (7.6° Rankin), and remains liquid down to essentially absolute zero. As the coldest known substance, helium plays an important role in cryogenic research. At 3.9° R, liquid helium exhibits super fluidity or virtually zero viscosity (Helium II), defies gravity to flow up the walls of containers, and becomes nearly a perfect heat conductor."

check out http://www.imagetechnology.net/properties%20of%20helium.htm













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What's more, is that I can't find anything on Absolute Zero in my stupid Chem book. So I have no defining evidence in my hands either way. How crappy is that? A chemistry book with no true definition of Absolute Zero. I'd admit I'm full of shit if I could find the evidence in my book...

Only thing is that my book goes against that second website you gave. Helium doesn't displace air (sic. bottom of page: Helium as asphyxiant) Because Helium doesn't displace air, the balloons we use float. Liquefying, maybe, but again, I must say that the whole "displaces air" is a bit of a misnomer since it does everything to NOT displace our Nitrogen-heavy atmosphere, therefore it would escape rather than build. I am having mad crazy issues with these little dealies.

Originally posted by saturntangerine
Only thing is that my book goes against that second website you gave. Helium doesn't displace air (sic. bottom of page: Helium as asphyxiant) Because Helium doesn't displace air, the balloons we use float. Liquefying, maybe, but again, I must say that the whole "displaces air" is a bit of a misnomer since it does everything to NOT displace our Nitrogen-heavy atmosphere, therefore it would escape rather than build. I am having mad crazy issues with these little dealies.

:huh:

Originally posted by Heep


:huh:

My sentiments precisely.

I can't believe that the only boiling/melting points listed in my Chem book are for water and Mercury. How ridiculous!

I was just confused by nearly every word you said :D

So, due to the fact that it is a naturally occuring element, I would wager that it's been naturally occurring for quite some time (long before we ever discovered it), and has also been "escaping" from our atmosphere for just as long. Seems highly unlikely (IMO) that using it to fill balloons will rapidly increase it's rate of consumption to a point that it is depleted. Unless, it is created by or somehow inherently linked/sustained with another "natural resource" that we are consuming at a rate that exceeds it's ability to create/sustain the production of helium.

I only ever took 1 chem course when I was in junior high, so I could be WAY off, but this just makes sense to me.

Helium is mostly found in Natural Gas deposits, so therefore when we run out of NG deposits we could very well run out of He. Now the link that Yogs gave seems to make me think that He is "made" very easily by passing alpha rays through loose electrons... And while I know that is a *very* basic explanation of the process, I also know that there is much more to it that I don't entirely understand yet. It's been about 4 years since I last took Chem, and it isn't coming back as easily as I'd hoped.

Bah....jargon,jargon,jargon......Chem didn't have cheerleaders,so Itook track instead......as for the helium,as long as there's enough to last until my kids stop laughing at chipmunk impressions,I don't care.Once Iam dead,the planet is of no use to me,and it will be up to my children's generation to have a go at killing it off.:D

Other uses for Helium....

- Superconductor research (tend to work near 0 Kelvin and require a non-reactive, non flammable, non conductive coolant)
- Deep sea diving (replaces nitrogen) mixtures to avoid nitrogen saturation (ie the bends which incidentally is Radiohead's best album)
- Non Flammable Dirigibles (think Hindenburg)

Now having not done a chemistry course at school (I'm serious) my limited understanding was that Helium molecules were created when deuterium or Tritium (being 'heavy' isotopes of hydrogen) nuclei were the subject of a fusion reaction where they merged by the gravitational forces located within stars by virtue of their mass forcing the nuclei to merge together at the sub-atomic level.

This process of fusion is the thermo-nuclear reaction we observe in stars of which the sun is our nearest example. In fact, huge quantities of hydrogen are consumed by this process to create helium molecules.

On the other hand, it's pretty difficult to harvest these helium molecules and my understanding is that the US is the only major source of Helium. As the US banned the export of Helium to Germany prior to WWI this is why Zeppelins were filled with Hydrogen (which was extracted with the electolysis of water) which made them extremely flammable.

By the way, I don't like Helium Balloons for other reasons - the frickin things fly over the ocean, eventually pop and adds to the junk in the sea. Seabirds, fish, turtles, dolphins, whales, seals can be killed by this crap and the more expensive shiny stuff is usually made of non-biodegradable crap so the frickin stuff can kill multiple times as can the plastic stuff used to hold a 6 pack together....

Originally posted by saturntangerine
Helium is mostly found in Natural Gas deposits, so therefore when we run out of NG deposits we could very well run out of He. Now the link that Yogs gave seems to make me think that He is "made" very easily by passing alpha rays through loose electrons... And while I know that is a *very* basic explanation of the process, I also know that there is much more to it that I don't entirely understand yet. It's been about 4 years since I last took Chem, and it isn't coming back as easily as I'd hoped.

Dont worry Tangie - my wifes degree is in chemical engineering (as well as one in mechanical) and I trust what she tells me.













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Helium balloons are fun to dribble like a basketball though, they come up automatically :D