a very light colorless element that is one of the six inert gasses; the most difficult gas to liquefy; occurs in economically extractable amounts in certain natural gases (as those found in Texas and Kansas)
helium
How to use helium in a sentence. Example sentences and definitions for helium.
Editorial note
When the balloon loses helium, it loses lift.
Quick take
a very light colorless element that is one of the six inert gasses; the most difficult gas to liquefy; occurs in economically extractable amounts in certain natural gases (as those found in Texas and Kansas)
Meaning at a glance
The clearest senses and uses of helium gathered in one view.
Definitions
Core meanings and parts of speech for helium.
noun
a very light colorless element that is one of the six inert gasses; the most difficult gas to liquefy; occurs in economically extractable amounts in certain natural gases (as those found in Texas and Kansas)
See also: He
Example sentences
When the balloon loses helium, it loses lift.
The helium will expand until it reaches this valve, then spill out.
The cooling system was designed to boil off helium.
This should have saved them a lot of trouble as helium is actually pretty hard to contain.
How well would hot-air or helium inflatables work, compared to Earth?
The valve will tend to dump helium until the balloon reaches neutral buoyancy.
The density of helium is an order of magnitude lower than the density of air.
This is a new form of behavior observed in ensembles of particles, in this case superfluid helium.
I would like to understand why they are using helium at all instead of a several other plausible alternatives.
While its absolutely true that you get a huge benefit in head flying by switching to helium it also means that there is pretty much a guaranteed lifetime cap on the usefulness of the drives.
The article offers the following rationale for using helium in this capacity;>>>At one-seventh the density of air, helium produces less drag on the moving components of a drive - the spinning disk platters and actuator arms -- which translates into less friction and lower operating temperatures.<<<This appears to be a slight misunderstanding as the density of any gas is variable and we have found that it is directly proportional to the unit weight of the substance, the pressure and inversely proportional to temperature.
Frequently asked questions
Short answers drawn from the clearest meanings and examples for this word.
How do you use helium in a sentence?
When the balloon loses helium, it loses lift.
What does helium mean?
a very light colorless element that is one of the six inert gasses; the most difficult gas to liquefy; occurs in economically extractable amounts in certain natural gases (as those found in Texas and Kansas)
What part of speech is helium?
helium is commonly used as noun.