Comment on If I stood on a precision scale and farted, would I get lighter or heavier?
TimewornTraveler@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 days ago
if you put an empty balloon on a scale and then fill it up while it sits on there, would it get heavier or lighter?
it would press on the scale less but it’s mass would increase
maxwells_daemon@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Not really, the balloon gains volume at the same rate as it gains mass, so its buoyancy doesn’t change. Or at least it wouldn’t, if it weren’t for a a small detail: the air inside the balloon gets compressed, which makes it heavier for its size, making it gain more mass than it gains buoyant force. That means the scale would read an increase in mass, representing the extra amount of air that shouldn’t be occupying that space, were it not compressed.