Wonder World Of Science : Where Do Lost Balloons Go? (1986)

thank you [Music] foreign [Music] I wonder I wonder what do you wonder wonder cat I wonder where do lost balloons go where do lost balloons go if you're curious enough you can find out well lost balloons start getting lost when they go up into the air lots of things go up into the air some things that go up into the air get moved by the air too [Music] air moves lots of things but as hard as I try and my eyes are very good I I still can't see air [Music] times I can feel it pushing you can feel it feel it real you just can't see it you can't reach out and touch it like you can touch a rock for instance because air isn't a solid thing like a rock is it's a gas air is more like water than it is like rock here is a gas a gas you can't see but you can see things through it it's an invisible gas that's all around us well all this invisible gas is all around us how can things go through it it's a lot like when something goes through water [Music] looks like the boat pushes the water aside while it moves through [Music] the boat does push the water aside and that's how it can move through the water the water is pushed aside as the boat goes through the space where the water was [Music] then the water comes back into that space as the boat moves out of it so things that move through the air must push the air aside except I can't see it because the air is invisible but I still wonder what do you still wonder I wonder when lost balloons go through the invisible air where do they go but I'm curious I'll find out look there are two lost balloons but they're not going through the air in the same way that's right one is just being blown along the ground by the wind but the other one seems to keep going higher and higher what's different about them maybe finding out where they came from will help you find out what's different about them people are blowing up these balloons [Music] this is one the children blew up air blew away this balloon and air also filled these balloons it comes from inside the children who are blowing them up and people get the air for blowing up the balloons from the air all around them they breathe it in they blow it out you put more and more air into a balloon and it gets bigger and bigger the air must be stretching it that's right here inside things pushes too the air inside this balloon and inside these balloons too is like the air that's outside them is the air inside these balloons different look how they pull on their strings the air inside these balloons is different in fact it really isn't Air at all it's a gas like areas but it's a different kind of gas [Music] this gas is called helium it's lighter than air balloons filled with helium float in the air in fact if you don't hold them down they go up up up through the air like this lost balloon I wonder I wonder what do you wonder I wonder what will happen to the Lost balloon as it goes up through the invisible air if I'm curious enough can I find out yes but you need a way to go up into the air let's imagine you were being carried by a balloon filled with helium up up through the air let's see what it would be like are you comfortable so far but as you go up it gets colder and colder does that mean that the higher you go the colder it gets that's right thanks the winds blow hard up here wind is air that moves oh now I see why balloons can travel so far and something else is happening it's getting harder for you to breathe you need your own supply of air up here is that because there's less and less air the higher you go that's right now sometimes as a balloon goes higher the helium leaks out of it and it slowly falls back to Earth but your balloon doesn't leak and it's getting bigger and bigger remember there's less air up here so it's easier for the gas inside the balloon to push on the balloon and stretch it and if you go high enough and if some of the gas inside the balloon doesn't leak out or if it isn't let out then a balloon bursts oh the ball is slower with a parachute its shape makes it hard for the air to get out of its way and so the air slows you down so you see all lost balloons and cats attached to them eventually fall back to the Earth and now you're back in your favorite tree again and you know many things about lost balloons now I know where lost balloons go but there's a lot more for me to wonder about [Music] foreign [Music]