Talk:3035: Trimix
The 'standard' and '2x' sized images had unexpected sizes, so an imagesize parameter has been added to render the image consistently with other comics on this website. See the web archive for more details. --TheusafBOT (talk) 05:15, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
- yeah, the image on xkcd.com looks comically large for me, and I think this might be related to this. 172.69.155.86 15:50, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
- Not for me. Iโm on Safari, and it looks pretty normal. 42.book.addictTalk to me! 16:08, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
- I'm on Chrome and it looks much larger than usual. .-. --1234231587678 (talk) 16:50, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
- I thought the "over-inflated" image was part of the pun... - 172.70.210.177 17:48, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
I'd question whether you could get a scuba tank to float with any amount of helium. Since you're dealing with a fixed size tank the most lift you going to get would be less than the weight of the air that the tank displaces (lift = weight of air - weight of tank - weight of helium, iirc). A typical aluminum Ali 80 tank has a volume of 11.1 liters which displaces only about 151g of air while the tank itself weighs 14kg StumbleRunner (talk) 07:17, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
- Now that you mention it ... I was distracted from the practicalities by the voice of Marvin the Martian running around in my head. Something about an earth-shattering kaboom. 172.71.151.165 07:33, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
- Yes of course a SCUBA tank cannot create any float since it cannot change it's volume (except when exploding). This is the reason why it would not work. No matter how much helium is compressed (that it it the problem the gas is compressed!) inside it. I have added this, and are not sure the text beneath this makes any sense. Someone deleted my addition but I hope this was a case of edit conflict they did not care to resolve, rather than they deleted it on purpose!? --Kynde (talk) 08:11, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
- I think, on revue, I happened to restore anything you thought lost (albeit in my words, not yet knowing what you'd done) when correcting/removing the awkward misunderstanding that helium is "anti-gravity" in the 'true explanation' bit. (Yes, it's the conceit of the comic, but should not then have been used in the genuine bit of the Explanation. You only become more buoyant if you have less weight in a given volume. For an effectively unchanging volume, more of even a lighter gas is heavier. And you can never have little enough of any gas to make a Scuba-tank buoyant at sea-level air pressures.) 172.70.90.118 11:13, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
- Yes of course a SCUBA tank cannot create any float since it cannot change it's volume (except when exploding). This is the reason why it would not work. No matter how much helium is compressed (that it it the problem the gas is compressed!) inside it. I have added this, and are not sure the text beneath this makes any sense. Someone deleted my addition but I hope this was a case of edit conflict they did not care to resolve, rather than they deleted it on purpose!? --Kynde (talk) 08:11, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
- There is no question here. Boyancy is provided by making the container (the tank in this example) lighter for its volume than the equivalent amount of air. With a balloon, the container volume increasaes as you increase the helium, making the container more boyant. A tank does not expand, and thus gets less boyant as increased helium adds to its mass per volume. The very best that you could do would be to fill the tank with a vacuum, but even then it would still weight more than the equivalent amount of air due to the weight of the tank itself.Geek Prophet (talk) 18:04, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
Trimix is also the name of one of the strongest injectible erectile dysfunction drugs. This was my first thought when I saw the comic title. Even after I recognized my error I half expected a double-entendre on "inflation".Geek Prophet (talk) 18:07, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
