If we used normal 11-12" balloons, each balloon would hold .5 cubic feet of helium. This much helium has enough power to lift 14 grams, or 0.0308644 pounds. At this rate, it would take 4,374 balloons to lift Trout Sniffer off the ground. Of course, this isn't taking into consideration the weigh of the balloons themselves...which, i'm guessing, would be reasonably hefty at the 4,000+ balloon mark.
I've done a little research around the net just to get a feel for tank prices. It appears as if a tank that will fill about 500 11-12" balloons (a tank that holds 250-300 cubic feet of helium) costs somewhere around $100. This mean it would be at least $900 to lift Trout, probably closer to $1,000 after we take into consideration the weight of the balloons. We're not going to lift a human.
I just searched a bit more and found cheaper prices on tanks...but it's still going to cost a hell-ton...not to mention that these prices don't mean anything, local prices are what matters
Now, imagine a opossum, weighing probably not any more than 10 pounds. With 500 balloons filled with helium (the more full they are, the better), we could lift 15.4322 pounds, which could be described as easily enough to elevate the creature.
Because we're not really interested in balloons as much as we are the helium inside, I propose that we simply buy huge ass trash bags and fill them with helium. We them tether them together and, eventually, to a limb of the victim. Since we'll be using bigger containers, their weight should, in theory at least, be less than the collective balloons. Also, I'm thinking it'd probably be quite a bit cheaper.
Anyway, the point of this was to crush any hopes of lifting a human...and to add fuel to the "lift a opossum" fire.
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