Hot Air Balloon Desk



My first thought was that the balloons are fake and the desk is attached a strut that is bolted to the ceiling. But no: those are real, helium/hydrogen-filled balloons. This reception desk at the Dublin-based ad agency Boys and Girls is held aloft by balloons that are made to remain permanently inflated. The other end of the table is propped up on giant Jenga blocks.

Link -via Swiss Miss | Photo: Boys and Girls

UPDATE 6/5/12: Two commenters provide good reasons to think that the balloons really are fake.

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Newest 5 Comments

I'm calling bullshit on that one. I went to the source site, and... seriously... "hydrogen/helium" sourced from Caltech? what the heck is that? ...and the ribbons are reinforced with "Carbo-Titanium"?

John, they're pulling your leg.
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Bullshit.

"...a Heluim/Hydrogen hybrid gas with an atomic weight 150 times lighter than Helium alone." <-- what does that even mean? In any case, even going all the way to complete vacuum only gains you ~20% more lifting power than helium alone: you're limited by the mass of the displaced air.

Empirically, 45 large helium balloons can lift their own weight, plus about 8 pounds. The balloons shows are substantially smaller, and there's only 10-12 of them. So, a maximum lifting power of ~1 lb.
http://www.stevespangler.com/in-the-news/balloon-boy-helium-physics-science/

If you want to argue that the desk, titanium cleat and laptop collectively weigh less than 2 pounds (since half the weight is on the Jenga blocks), go ahead.
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I'm adding in that helium and hydrogen would leak out of any balloon over time unless that balloon were made of a far thicker/heavier material, decreasing the lifting power even further.
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You can see a thick red pole in the shadows at the center of the pack of balloons.

Also, the first blue balloon has a suspiciously thicker red rope weirdly combined with normal yellow ribbon.
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