Flying high, thinking low? What every aeronaut needs to know

Every aeronaut, including a man who planned to float above his backyard with 45 helium-filled weather balloons attached to a lawn chair, needs to know some physics, in which there is some survival value. In a technologically complex world it is important for everyone to know some universal laws and fundamental principles of technology. The story of the helium balloons and the lawn chair, which ended up at 11,000 feet in altitude rather than the planned 30 feet, can be useful for teaching students. Mass, displaced volume, air density/temperature and other factors go into predicting an equilibrium altitude.