I was wondering about that, too! In the hardware side of the internet and datacenters I've heard of five-nines and six-nines of reliability, and for metal purity (.999 silver, for instance), but...
I was wondering about that, too! In the hardware side of the internet and datacenters I've heard of five-nines and six-nines of reliability, and for metal purity (.999 silver, for instance), but I've not heard of anyone decimalizing the numbers that way. That's so cool. Whoever came up with it must've cackled like a madperson.
After a bit of poking around, it turns out Wikipedia has a page for that titled Nines (notation) with a section specifically for gases. Pretty much the same info as what this thread is about, but I'm curious about the log(10) notation. Any math people able to confirm? Anyhow, cool stuff!
From the article: … (Original post by @ChingShih.)
From the article:
The majority of helium that is supplied to helium customers is actually Grade 5 helium, which is often a higher grade than is needed, particularly in the balloon industry. Despite what you may be thinking, it’s not so that helium producers can make a bigger profit. In fact, it can cost substantially more to produce a lower grade helium.
…
The majority of the world’s helium needs to be transported as a compressed, bulk liquid. That’s simply because you could only move a fraction of helium in an expanded gas state compared to a compressed liquid. (Think of recycled aluminum cans, for example. You can fit exponentially more cans in the recycling bag if you crush them down first as opposed to just tossing them in intact.)
Liquid helium is inherently extremely pure — far more pure than even Grade 5 helium actually, and liquid is the most efficient way to move product. Therefore, for helium suppliers to purposely offer a lower grade helium, they would actually have to add new operational methods and separate processes and transport specifically geared for the lower purities. All of this adds big costs of course, so most distributors simply stick to the industry standard transport of Grade 5. That is why for and end user of helium, a lower grade can cost more than the higher grades.
So is the helium for balloons just poorly transported which allows for impurities? I assume it’s not possible to re-purify helium through liquefaction again, otherwise I imagine that would be...
So is the helium for balloons just poorly transported which allows for impurities?
I assume it’s not possible to re-purify helium through liquefaction again, otherwise I imagine that would be happening
I'm imagining the scene from Dune where they're harvesting spice, only with helium, and I love it! Granted, I want airships to come back and be cool again in such a bad way that I'd let it be for...
I'm imagining the scene from Dune where they're harvesting spice, only with helium, and I love it! Granted, I want airships to come back and be cool again in such a bad way that I'd let it be for any purpose (yes, even floating advertisements like in Bladerunner, I'm sorry).
Hydrogen is okay, they just didn't have the gas compartments separated from conductive materials enough that static electricity didn't cause unintentional combustion. Really just an engineering...
Hydrogen is okay, they just didn't have the gas compartments separated from conductive materials enough that static electricity didn't cause unintentional combustion. Really just an engineering failure combined with what was probably a freak accident -- I guess I subscribe to the static electricity/St. Elmo's Fire theory, but I'm also not one of those people so it's just idle curiosity.
But I see the Hindenburg disaster as kinda like the Titanic's situation; the Titanic had poor quality riveting along some sections and also had flood compartments that allowed water to overflow to adjacent compartments (and doors that weren't closed). In theory the ship should've been able to take on water such that it sat lower in the water and it returned to an even keel, but the structural weaknesses allowed the ship to break, allowing flooding to happen faster in such an instance. A couple of engineering fails are okay, but combined with an iceberg it was a $2 billion romance-tragedy box office success. Maybe if the Hindenburg had also had a sexy floating iceberg and Leonardo DiCaprio then the engineering fail would've been overlooked.
Kind of off-topic, but when I saw the title, my first thought was that "grades" referred to a ratio of isotopes, not impurities. But now I'm wondering if there are any particular uses for Helium-3...
Kind of off-topic, but when I saw the title, my first thought was that "grades" referred to a ratio of isotopes, not impurities. But now I'm wondering if there are any particular uses for Helium-3 specifically.
Currently the big one is neutron detection (especially of radioactive materials), but there also smaller applications in scientific and medical fields. The big hypothetical use is for fusion fuel...
Currently the big one is neutron detection (especially of radioactive materials), but there also smaller applications in scientific and medical fields. The big hypothetical use is for fusion fuel (for He3-D fusion).
keep in mind that He-3 fusion reactors are incredibly theoretical. D-T reactors are hard enough to attempt making, He-3 is orders of magnitude harder e.g. see this vid
keep in mind that He-3 fusion reactors are incredibly theoretical. D-T reactors are hard enough to attempt making, He-3 is orders of magnitude harder e.g. see this vid
Oh I’m well aware. But chances are, if someone is talking about He-3, it’s in relation to neutron detection, fission, or nuclear weapons (He-3 is a decay product of tritium used in weapons).
Oh I’m well aware. But chances are, if someone is talking about He-3, it’s in relation to neutron detection, fission, or nuclear weapons (He-3 is a decay product of tritium used in weapons).
Truly a misc topic! Is this system of grading common in other industries as well?
I was wondering about that, too! In the hardware side of the internet and datacenters I've heard of five-nines and six-nines of reliability, and for metal purity (.999 silver, for instance), but I've not heard of anyone decimalizing the numbers that way. That's so cool. Whoever came up with it must've cackled like a madperson.
After a bit of poking around, it turns out Wikipedia has a page for that titled Nines (notation) with a section specifically for gases. Pretty much the same info as what this thread is about, but I'm curious about the log(10) notation. Any math people able to confirm? Anyhow, cool stuff!
From the article:
…
(Original post by @ChingShih.)
So is the helium for balloons just poorly transported which allows for impurities?
I assume it’s not possible to re-purify helium through liquefaction again, otherwise I imagine that would be happening
It's too bad they can't fill up giant bags and transport them by drone or hot air balloon. That would be fun to watch.
I'm imagining the scene from Dune where they're harvesting spice, only with helium, and I love it! Granted, I want airships to come back and be cool again in such a bad way that I'd let it be for any purpose (yes, even floating advertisements like in Bladerunner, I'm sorry).
So long as they don't use hydrogen to float.
Hydrogen is okay, they just didn't have the gas compartments separated from conductive materials enough that static electricity didn't cause unintentional combustion. Really just an engineering failure combined with what was probably a freak accident -- I guess I subscribe to the static electricity/St. Elmo's Fire theory, but I'm also not one of those people so it's just idle curiosity.
But I see the Hindenburg disaster as kinda like the Titanic's situation; the Titanic had poor quality riveting along some sections and also had flood compartments that allowed water to overflow to adjacent compartments (and doors that weren't closed). In theory the ship should've been able to take on water such that it sat lower in the water and it returned to an even keel, but the structural weaknesses allowed the ship to break, allowing flooding to happen faster in such an instance. A couple of engineering fails are okay, but combined with an iceberg it was a $2 billion romance-tragedy box office success. Maybe if the Hindenburg had also had a sexy floating iceberg and Leonardo DiCaprio then the engineering fail would've been overlooked.
It's totally possible to reprocess it actually, there's a great Tom Scott video on this
https://youtu.be/mOy8Xjaa_o8
Kind of off-topic, but when I saw the title, my first thought was that "grades" referred to a ratio of isotopes, not impurities. But now I'm wondering if there are any particular uses for Helium-3 specifically.
Currently the big one is neutron detection (especially of radioactive materials), but there also smaller applications in scientific and medical fields. The big hypothetical use is for fusion fuel (for He3-D fusion).
keep in mind that He-3 fusion reactors are incredibly theoretical. D-T reactors are hard enough to attempt making, He-3 is orders of magnitude harder e.g. see this vid
Oh I’m well aware. But chances are, if someone is talking about He-3, it’s in relation to neutron detection, fission, or nuclear weapons (He-3 is a decay product of tritium used in weapons).