Question

A particular balloon is designed by its manufacturer to be inflated tom a volume of no more than 2.5 L. If the balloon is filled with 2.0 L of helium at sea level, is released, and rises to an altitude at which the atmospheric pressure is only 500. mm Hg, will the balloon burst?

Answer 1

Not quite sure how far you need to take this question. It depends on whether you just use information supplied, or you are practising estimating and assumptions?

If we assume that atmospheric pressure at sea level is 760 mmHg, the we can use

P1V1=P2V2

however for an atomspheric pressure drop to 500 mmHg, you would need to be at about 18,ooo ft. So the temperature is much less than at sea level 20C(293K), say -20C (253K).

so you oculd use

P1V1/T1=P2V2/T2