Question

You are given the task of inflating helium balloons for a large birthday party in January. Your job is to bring a helium cylinder that has been sitting outside at a storage facility and use it to inflate 125 balloons. The temperature outside is 2.4 degrees C, and it is 21 degrees Celsius inside the house. Before you haul the cylinder to the party, you check the gauge pressure of the gas to confirm that you have enough for the balloons you need. The volume of the cylinder is 9.35 L and on average the balloons must be inflated to 6.5 L. What is the minimum gauge pressure required so that you won't run out of gas? The pressure inside the balloon is approximately equal to the pressure of air outside (that is, the force required to stretch the material of the balloon itself is negligible.)

Answer 1