You weigh slightly less but your total mass increases slightly as well.
Briefly, slightly, yes. Practically speaking, it’s negligible though.
Very interesting, but I don’t see how replacing the same volume of air in our lungs with helium doesn’t make you lighter. It’s the same volume, so the volume displacement zeroes out in any equation - I think that poster may mean as compared to empty lungs. Even then I think they’re mistaken - otherwise a blimp/balloon wouldn’t work, as it too is displacing air around itself, and increasing in volume.
Thank you, really interesting!
On a side note, I always through Stack Exchange was just for computery stuff. Didn’t know it covered everything!
It can be interesting to see the questions that make it to hot questions.
Its a little sample of the various communities.
That’s a fun question, and kind of depends on how you see it. If you’re going by “standing on and reading a scale in Earth’s atmosphere”, I believe the scale would read ever so slightly less. However, this is kind of mixing up weight and how we measure weight. Helium still has mass, it’s not negative mass, it still is affected by gravity and gets pulled down by it like everything else. It’s just that it’s less dense than other gasses in the atmosphere, and so the buoyancy overpowers gravity and it floats. So, you with deflated lungs actually weigh less than you with lungs inflated with helium, even if that’s not what the scale reads!
I think your closing statement contradicts your earlier statement about weighing less (though I get the point you’re trying to make about mass).
Do we consider weight a sum of all interactions in a given place (including atmosphere)? I’d say we do, since our atmosphere accounts for a notable portion of our weight, and I’ve never seen a scale with a negative tare to account for atmospheric weight.
Less the difference between weight and mass and more the affect of buoyancy on your method of measurement. If you float in water, it doesn’t mean you’re weightless in water. It just means the buoyant force of the water overpowers gravity.
That is exactly the difference between weight and mass. And yes, that would be weightless and objects like balloons have negative weight until they reach an altitude where they’re neutrally bouyant and then are weightless.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weight
Weight is defined as a force and has a direction. That’s what causes the movement. If the weight didn’t change there would be no movement.
At which point are we weighing you? You weigh the same as when you are holding the balloon. Pre-balloon, you weigh more.
