Weekly Online Lesson

Online Lesson Archives

Grade Level: 5-10
Subject: Science

Lighter-Than-Air Flight

Last week we congratulated Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones who, on March 20, 1999, became the first balloonists to circumnavigate the globe on a non-stop, non-refueled flight. This week we continue the celebration by taking an in-depth look at the science of ballooning and aviation.

Balloons and Airships

Before lifting off on your scientific inquiry into ballooning and lighter-than-air flight, it helps to have some background information about the history of ballooning. For this you can go to ALLSTAR: Aeronautics Learning Laboratory for Science Technology and Research, an educational resource sponsored by NASA. Basically it's an online aviation textbook. One of its chapters is called Balloons and Airships.

When the page opens, scroll down and read each of the following sections:

Among other things, you learn about Father Laurenco de Gusmao of Portugal, the man credited with inventing the hot-air balloon; military use of hot air balloons in the Civil War; and the tragic Hindenberg disaster in 1937.

While you're at the ALLSTAR site, see if there are some other online texts about aviation you might be interested in reading.

The Science of Ballooning

Next stop is NOVA Online and their Web companion to the program "Balloon Race Around the World." The Science of Ballooning will fill you in on the scientific principles that allowed Piccard and Jones to remain afloat in the air for the duration of their historic 20-day flight.

Start with Hot Science: Density and see if you can guess what makes balloons float. If you guess right, you can try out a Shockwave virtual experiment that lets you test the mass of four different elements.

Next, move on to Hot Science: Up, Up, and How Far Away? Follow the directions to learn how to calculate the distance between yourself and an approaching balloon.

Click The Atmosphere for an interactive look at the layers of gas that make up our atmosphere. Click on each layer to find out more about it (you may want to start from the bottom and work your way up—like a balloon)

If it weren't for The Jet Stream, balloonists would have a difficult time circumnavigating the globe. Click this heading to find out what the jet stream is and why it is the key to long-distance ballooning. You can how the jet stream is moving today by taking a look at the National Jet Stream Map.

National Air and Space Museum

For all the low-down on flying high, touch down at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C., and drop in at the the How Things Fly exhibit. Click the How DO Things Fly? button to enter the online exhibit. Among other things, you will learn how balloons are like boats, how spacecraft fall around the earth, and how a jet weighing thousands of pounds can get off the ground yet you can't (at least not for very long, without help).

If you can't get to Washington D.C. but you'd like to see what the exhibit looks like inside the museum, go back to the How Things Fly home page and click the Views inside the gallery link. If you have Quicktime and a fast Internet connection, check out the ultracool How Things Fly Quicktime VR page.

Back to NASA

Wait a minute! The NASA folks are the ones who fly shuttle missions into space. Why would they be interested the science of ballooning? Actually, NASA owes a great deal to ballooning, as you'll discover when you visit NASA's Scientific Ballooning Program site. Read the brief introduction, and then visit NASA's National Scientific Balloon Facility or NSBF in Palestine, Texas.

You'll probably be most interested in reading the NSBF Mission, which details the history and accomplishments of the facility; the Album, with images of the facility and its operations; and Antarctic Operations, with all the details of balloon exploration way way down under.

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