(October 1, 2009 at 8:11 pm)Saerules Wrote: So a balloon is weightless? The air was contained in the body at the time of death... very similar to a ballon. It really depends on how sensitive a scale we are talking about here... and how much air one can hold in their lungs.
When you weigh a balloon, you weigh ONLY the balloon, not the air inside it. To confirm this you can weigh a balloon fresh out of the pack, then weigh the balloon after it's been inflated and tied.
The results will be the same (unless you have a VERY sensitive scale that can detect the difference in weight caused by small amounts of saliva entering the balloon during inflation).
The air that's inside the ballon would be there anyway even if the balloon wasn't there, and in the no-balloon case, the scale would read "zero".
Sorry if this is a little off-track , just found this interesting.
Galileo was a man of science oppressed by the irrational and superstitious. Today, he is used by the irrational and superstitious who claim they are being oppressed by science - Mark Crislip