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From: jgpo@iwu1c.UUCP (John, KA9MNK)
Newsgroups: net.physics
Subject: Re: Evidence for the soul?!?
Message-ID: <192@iwu1c.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 18-Jan-84 11:00:49 EST
Article-I.D.: iwu1c.192
Posted: Wed Jan 18 11:00:49 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 19-Jan-84 04:48:24 EST
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
Lines: 49

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     So how do you explain the fact that a toy balloon weighs more when
     inflated than when deflated?
 
The moisture in the breath used to inflate the balloon is usually much
greater than the relative humidity in the surrounding air.  And since
water is heavier than air...
 
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Actually, water vapor is *lighter* than air.  Air is mostly nitrogen and
oxygen, and H2O has a lower molecular weight than either N2 or O2.

The next time you find yourself in the same room with a flight instructor,
ask him/her about "density altitude."  You'll find that the factors which
influence density altitude are atmospheric pressure (natch), temperature
(obviously the BIGGIE), and (surprise!) humidity.  The more humid, the
less dense the air.


In all probability, loss of air from the lungs accounts for the weight loss
after death.  (The air making up the tidal volume obviously escapes; does
anybody know if any part of the residual volume escapes with the loss of
muscle tone?)

Moisture, as one person suggested, undoubtedly escapes and makes the body
lighter, but this would be a gradual loss.  The weight loss we are trying
to explain is supposedly a *sudden* one.

I'm sure there's nothing metaphysical about it, at all.


	From the filthy, no-good, unAmerican, atheistic keyboard of
	John Opalko
	AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
	{whatever}!ihnp4!iwu1c!jgpo



PS:
The reason an inflated balloon weighs more than a flat one is the air
inside a balloon is *under pressure.*  It contains more molecules per
unit volume than the atmosphere surrounding the balloon.  Thus, it weighs
more than the volume of the air it displaces.  (Granted, that buoyancy
makes that balloon weigh less in a room full of air than it would weigh
in a vacuum.)