NationStates Jolt Archive

If a hot air balloon were to be released straight up, and somehow, meteorological phenomena (wind, pressure, etc.) all cancel each other out, where would it end up due to the movement of the earth and gravity alone?

Where would it eventually end up if it started:
at a pole?
on the equator?
between the two? And does it matter which latitude?
And just to get it out of the way: the ground.
EDIT: And would the season/moon phase matter?

straight up hovering at the point where the air becomes to thin to support it

a full Moon would make a tiny difference but nothing notable as would nearby mountains and such

If a hot air balloon were to be released straight up, and somehow, meteorological phenomena (wind, pressure, etc.) all cancel each other out, where would it end up due to the movement of the earth and gravity alone?

Where would it eventually end up if it started:
at a pole?
on the equator?
between the two? And does it matter which latitude?
And just to get it out of the way: the ground.
EDIT: And would the season/moon phase matter?
depends on what the properties of the atmosphere in your hypothetical world were. The rotation of the earth would still create winds.

straight up hovering at the point where the air becomes to thin to support it

a full Moon would make a tiny difference but nothing notable as would nearby mountains and such

Directly above the point it was released?
Or would the rotation move that point relative to the balloon?

If a hot air balloon were to be released straight up, and somehow, meteorological phenomena (wind, pressure, etc.) all cancel each other out, where would it end up due to the movement of the earth and gravity alone?

Where would it eventually end up if it started:
at a pole?
on the equator?
between the two? And does it matter which latitude?
And just to get it out of the way: the ground.
EDIT: And would the season/moon phase matter?
Are you disregarding the coriolis effect, too? that's caused by the Earth's rotation, not the winds, and it's the only factor I can think of that would affect where it would go. It would rise to an altitude where the atmospheric pressure was less than the pressure inside the balloon, then burst. Geographically, though, I'm still working on where it would end up. Someone will probably beat me to it, of course.:)

depends on what the properties of the atmosphere in your hypothetical world were. The rotation of the earth would still create winds.

Umm... well, I don't know anything about weather, but I'm wondering what would happen ignoring the random variances in day-to-day weather... or something.

Are you disregarding the coriolis effect, too? that's caused by the Earth's rotation, not the winds, and it's the only factor I can think of that would affect where it would go. It would rise to an altitude where the atmospheric pressure was less than the pressure inside the balloon, then burst. Geographically, though, I'm still working on where it would end up. Someone will probably beat me to it, of course.:)

That's fair game.

Directly above the point it was released?
Or would the rotation move that point relative to the balloon?

directly over slowly moving west (not the case if your on either pole though)

then again I'm hardly a physicist

Actually on second thought, the coriolis effect only causes course deviations on objects that are already moving, and since there is no wind, the balloon doesn't move at all. So, it would rise until it burst, and the only offset would be cause by the rotation of the earth. Also, since I have no clue what the speed a balloon rises at, I'll give it an arbitrary number, like so; Let's say the balloon rises at 15 metres a minute, and it makes it 7km before it pops. That's a total time of 7 hours! maybe my assumptions are way off, but anyway if this is correct during this time the spot it launched from would have rotated 7,000 miles! (earth's rotation=1000 miles/hour). So, it would explode 7,000 miles West of the original point. I would have like to have more time to actually research this, since there are a lot of unknowns, eg. the speed the balloon rises, the pressure differential the material can take before exploding, and also I'm not sure the balloon would rise at a constant speed. But anyway, there's my effort.

That's fair game.

What's fair game?

I think it is a trick question. It obviously would end up in Oz. :confused:

What's fair game?
The coriolis effect.

And when you say west, do you mean that if it stayed intact long enough, it would eventually return over the exact spot it was released?
Or would it spiral north or south?

The coriolis effect.

And when you say west, do you mean that if it stayed intact long enough, it would eventually return over the exact spot it was released?
Or would it spiral north or south?
I mean if there's no wind to independently move the balloon, all it will do is rise until it explodes, right? but during that time, the earth is still spinning, counter-clockwise when looking down from the north pole, meaning that the spot it was launched from will have moved east during this period. Therefore the balloons final track relative to the earth's surface would be an arrow heading 7,000 miles straight west of where it was launched from. This would be the same regardless which hemisphere it was launched from.

Oh, and if you launched from either pole, it would have no track. It would just go straight up and then pop.