I mean it is expensive, it's just the amount required for a balloon is insignificant and thus seems cheap.
As a diver who uses helium I can tell you it is, compared to air, so much more expensive they actually charge me for it (rather than just rolled into the cost of a dive) - to the sum of about $300 a dive - depending on depth.
What is helium used for when diving?
Reducing the amount of narcotic gases in your mix so you don't act like a drunk idiot when in a life threatening situation.
Those narcotic gases are nitrogen and oxygen (although there's only so little oxygen you can have....and also only so much!)
Edit: extra info: oxygen and nitrogen are narcotic at depth, nitrogen is better understood and so often we talk about nitrogen narcosis, which tends to start hitting people after about 30m, but each person reacts different and to different degrees at different deaths. I personally notice it at about 50m or so. If I was more relaxed while diving it'd probably hit me sooner.
and to different degrees at different deaths.
Was that supposed to say depths?
Yes. Yes it was.
I've seen enough of YouTuber, Scary Interesting, to believe that either word would work!
A fellow cave diving accident creepypasta enjoyer
Enough to make me never want to even attempt such a thing, myself! But I did know if the helium ratio stuff because of it, so it's still educational content.
His videos actually helped me get into free diving, believe it or not. Still not touching cave diving with a 10ft pole, though
::visibly shutters::
Awesome thank you!
Most welcome! I can talk endlessly about diving so welcome the question.
I added an edit with some more information incase you're more curious.
Are there other gasses that could be used. E.g some of the noble gasses like argon or neon?
Ah very interesting, and yes theoretically I believe. Some people are experimenting with other gases due to the price and low availability of Helium.
Rebreathers are becoming a lot more accessible these days and so are making dives much cheaper, but they're still $20k so it takes a while to recoup the cost.
I mean it is expensive, it's just the amount required for a balloon is insignificant and thus seems cheap.
As a diver who uses helium I can tell you it is, compared to air, so much more expensive they actually charge me for it (rather than just rolled into the cost of a dive) - to the sum of about $300 a dive - depending on depth.
What is helium used for when diving?
Reducing the amount of narcotic gases in your mix so you don't act like a drunk idiot when in a life threatening situation.
Those narcotic gases are nitrogen and oxygen (although there's only so little oxygen you can have....and also only so much!)
Edit: extra info: oxygen and nitrogen are narcotic at depth, nitrogen is better understood and so often we talk about nitrogen narcosis, which tends to start hitting people after about 30m, but each person reacts different and to different degrees at different deaths. I personally notice it at about 50m or so. If I was more relaxed while diving it'd probably hit me sooner.
Was that supposed to say depths?
Yes. Yes it was.
I've seen enough of YouTuber, Scary Interesting, to believe that either word would work!
A fellow cave diving accident creepypasta enjoyer
Enough to make me never want to even attempt such a thing, myself! But I did know if the helium ratio stuff because of it, so it's still educational content.
His videos actually helped me get into free diving, believe it or not. Still not touching cave diving with a 10ft pole, though
::visibly shutters::
Awesome thank you!
Most welcome! I can talk endlessly about diving so welcome the question.
I added an edit with some more information incase you're more curious.
Are there other gasses that could be used. E.g some of the noble gasses like argon or neon?
Ah very interesting, and yes theoretically I believe. Some people are experimenting with other gases due to the price and low availability of Helium.
Rebreathers are becoming a lot more accessible these days and so are making dives much cheaper, but they're still $20k so it takes a while to recoup the cost.
https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argox
Hydrogen is used at extreme depths, but isn't so good at moderate depths, and has its own issues, like being flammable as all fuck