Helium

Within these past two weeks, I have attended two parties where helium balloons were undoubtedly present. And you know what that means. Time to make yourself sound like a chipmunk! And that is just what we did. By 'we' I mean my cousins and friends, not me. I myself can only remember sucking helium once in my lifetime, years ago.

Did you know that though helium definitely changes the sound of your voice, it doesn't actually change its pitch? It changes the timbre of your voice. Timbre is what enables you to differentiate the same note played at the same volume on two different instruments. It's also what make our voices different from others, and allows us to distinguish different elements of speech. Basically, it's what makes sounds from different things/people unique to one another.

As we all know, helium is lighter than air, which means that sound travels faster in it. The fast moving higher frequencies in your voice (because your voice isn't made up of just ONE frequency, it's a whole symphony of sound waves with different frequencies that collaborate to produce that sound that comes out of your throat like magic) have more power in this situation, so they kind of overpower the lower frequencies, and that's why your voice is all squeaky.

If you're interested to a geeky and want-to-know-it-all amount like I am, or you're just bored and don't have anything better (or worse) to do, you can check this out. :)

Oh, and since helium, a gas lighter than air, makes your voice squeaky, wouldn't a gas that is denser than air make your voice deeper? The answer is YES! Gases like Argon or Xenon would amplify the lower frequencies of your voice and give you a deep voice. But these gases are much harder to come by, so the chances of being able to try it out is pretty low.

Now, while helium-sucking is definitely cause for a good, hearty, stomach-cramping, tear-inducing laugh, it does have its dangers. When you're sucking pure helium, you get all light-headed, right? That's because (duh) your brain isn't getting the oxygen it needs. Sucking a balloon-full shouldn't be a problem though, as long as you get breaths of air in between. So don't let me be a spoilsport. But if there is ever a pressurized tank of helium in your vicinity, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, YOUR FAMILY AND YOURSELF, PLEASE DO NOT SUCK FROM IT. You could cause damage to your lungs or wind up having bubbles in you arteries which would lead to some sort of embolism or another, which would lead to stroke-like symptoms, and yes, death.

Oh and another thing. Some people say that helium kills brain cells, right? Well, apparently this isn't exactly true. While there might have been a few cases where this happened (I'm not sure), helium is an inert (harmless/un-reactive) gas and you'd have to inhale a helluva lot of it to do any significant damage to your brain.

So the sites say.

So I guess what I'm saying is it's okay to reap all those helium balloons for their much-desired fillings. Just don't inhale too much helium or you'll end up in a hospital ward whether you like it or not.