Como funcionan los globos aerostaticos

HOW THE BALLOON WORKS
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Hot air balloons are an ingenious application of basic scientific principles. Here we will show exactly how the balloon works, what makes it rise and fall and how apilot is able to maneuver it when it is in the air.

The basis of how the balloon works is that warmer air rises in cooler air. This is because hot air is lighter than cool air as it has less mass perunit of volume. Mass can be defined by the measure of how much matter something contains. The actual balloon (called an envelope) has to be so large as it takes such a large amount of heated air tolift it off the ground. For example, to lift 1000 pounds worth of weight you would need almost 65,000 cubic feet of heated air! To help keep the balloon in the air and rising, hot air needs to bepropelled upwards into the envelope using the burner (see separate section on burners for more information.)

A hot air balloon is made up of 3 main parts:

▪ The Envelope
The actual fabricballoon which holds the air

▪ The Burner
The unit which propels the heat up inside the envelope

▪ The Basket
Where the passengers and pilot stand

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The burner usespropane gas to heat up the air in the envelope to move the balloon off the ground and into the air. The pilot must keep firing the burner at regular intervals throughout the flight to ensure that theballoon continues to be stable. Naturally, the hot air will not escape from the hole at the very bottom of the envelope as firstly, hot air rises and secondly, the buoyancy keeps it moving up.

Thecontrols for piloting a balloon are actually extremely simple....

1 - To move the balloon upwards - the pilot opens up the propane valve which lets the propane flow to the burner which in turnfires the flame up into the envelope. Works in much the same way as a gas grill, the more you open the valve, the bigger the flame to heat the air, the faster the balloon rises.

2 - To move the...