Have you seen UP yet? Because if you haven’t, leave this window open, run to the nearest theatre right now and do so immediately. I’ll wait. Back? Okay, utterly spectacular, right? I agree. Now between all of the serene scenes of blue sky, the heartstring-tugging, and the silly comedy, did you find time to wonder just how many balloons it would take for you to have your own trip to South America? I know I did.
Well, thanks to Wired.com, it just may be easier for you to find your way to Paradise Falls than you'd think. Wired is running an article right now that discusses the scientific details of just how a person might be able to pick their house up using helium balloons. After finding out that a house like Carl’s might weigh about 100,000 pounds, their team did some quick calculations to come to the conclusion that Carl would likely need about 105,854 balloons to keep his house floating and a few thousand more to lift it.
According to the article, Pixar came pretty close to accurately depicting this scenario (as if anyone is surprised), stating: “Eyeballing the cluster of balloons above the house in UP, let’s say on average, it’s 40 balloons across and deep and 70 balloons tall. Do the math and there could be 112,000 balloons in there.” Now all I need is a dog with a translator collar and a chubby boy scout and I’ll be off to a place just like America, but more south.
