[Danielle55]

Hi!! I am having alot of trouble with this problem!! I have no idea where to start! Help please!! Thanks!!

You have probably hear the expression, "That went over like a lead balloon!" This leads to an interesting question. Suppose that you could beat lead to a thickness of 3 mil (comparable to the thickness of the plastic in ordinary garbage bags). Suppose that you had a pound of lead. If you beat that lead into foil 3 mils thick and then gathered it such that it formed a balloon, would that balloon float when filled with He or H2?

Here are a few questions to consider along the way:

• What the is a mil?

• What would be the area (and, from this, the volume) of the resulting lead foil balloon?

• Gold is soft like lead but even more malleable. Would a gold balloon float in air (He or H2 inside) if you could beat it to form a foil with 1 mil thickness?

• What information and equations are needed to solve the problem?

Finally, what will you say the next time someone says "That would go over like a lead balloon?"

[Arkcon]

Wherever the assignment came from, the unit "mil" should have been defined for you.  You caught me in a good mood today, so I'll google for you:

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/mil

Now, can you use that definition to start this problem?  Volume and area aren't complex chemistry concepts, but are instead simple arithmetic.  See how much of the problem you can do, then get back to us.