A hot air balloon is a sphere of radius 8 m. The air inside is at a temperature of 60°C. How large a mass can the balloon lift when the outside temperature is 20°C? (Assume air is an ideal gas, R = 8.314 J mole -1 K-1, 1 atm. = 1.013×105 Pa; the membrane tension is 5 N m-1.)
Given:
Inside temperature = Ti = 60°C = 333K
Outside temperature = To= 20°C = 293K
Outside pressure = Po = 1.013×105Nm-2

Let the pressure inside the balloon be Pi, T be the surface tension and r be the radius of the balloon, then by formula for excess pressure,
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Assume air to be ideal gas, then by formula for an ideal gas,
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If there are ni moles of air inside the balloon, then
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where Mi is the mass of air inside the balloon and MA is the molar mass.
Similarly,
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where Mo is the mass of air inside the balloon and MA is the molar mass.
Now, in order to calculate Pi, lets calculate excess pressure.
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Now, since this is negligible, we can assume,
Pi = Po = 1.013×105Nm-2
Assume, 21% of O2 and 79% of N2 in the atmosphere.
We can calculate MA as,
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We know, the mass M lifted by the balloon can be found as,
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So, the balloon can carry a mass of 301.46kg.
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