From: "Bernadette Barrucci" <bbarrucci@mediaone.net>
To: "Highlight Balloons Inc." <highlight@home.com>,
Subject: Re: Dance Floor Canopy Calculation Needed
Date: Wed, 17 May 2000 20:37:01 -0400

Hi It's Don using Bernadette email to answer the question

I don't believe you can easily calculate the amount of weight you need on
the bases.  The lift calculation for the quantity of balloons in the canopy
does not equal the amount of weight needed. Because what you have is what I
would call leverage.

What I mean by leverage is that the canopy pulls against your poles. And the
poles are 6 to 8 feet tall and as it is with a lever it takes less effort to
move something with leverage. The balloons are pulling against the poles not
lifting the bases. I'm sure a physicist could come up with a calculation to
determine the amount of weighted needed to keep the poles from pulling in
and tipping the bases.

My experience is that a full canopy has a limit in size. The 2 largest we
have built are 27 by 27 and another that was 24 by 30. Both of these exerted
a tremendous amount of pull against the poles. I don't remember how much
weight we had on the bases, but I would guess 50 pounds. I would use more
than that the next time for such a large canopy. Others have built canopies
larger than that and might be able to provide additional information. But
the bottom line is you need a lot of weight on a full canopy.

As far as an open or criss cross canopy where you do the perimeter and criss
cross the middle, you don't need near as much weight. We usually use 25
pounds weights for these at the most. Sometime we even get away with just
the metal bases (Pioneer sds bases). However the bigger it gets the chance
you'll need additional weight increases. Again it is because of the lever
type action of the pole pulling in and causing the base to tip or lean.


Don Barrucci, CBA
Parties of Woburn
Woburn MA