What happens when you breathe helium?

Breathing in pure helium deprives the body of oxygen, as if you were holding your breath. After inhaling helium, the body’s oxygen level can plummet to a hazardous level in a matter of seconds. You don’t have to worry about fatal asphyxiation if you’re sucking from a helium balloon at a party.

What does helium do to your brain when you inhale it?

When helium is inhaled it displaces the oxygen in a person’s body. Thus, oxygen can’t get into the blood stream, and can’t get up to the brain. If enough helium is inhaled, it can cause brain injury or in the worst case scenario, death.

How do you huff helium?

Put your mouth over the hole and inhale while squeezing the balloon. Don’t just hold the helium in your mouth—breathe it in like you would a normal breath of air. Just 3-4 seconds should be enough to fill your lungs with helium.

Is helium bad for your voice?

When you breathe in helium, your voice travels much more quickly across your vocal cords. Breathing a lot of helium, however, can be dangerous. Prolonged inhalation of helium can lead to an inadequate amount of oxygen in the lungs and blood. This, in turn, can lead to brain injury and, in rare cases, even death.

Can helium damage your voice?

Most kids would agree: Sucking a lungful of helium out of a balloon makes your voice sound hilarious. But contrary to popular belief, the switch from air to helium gas doesn’t actually increase the pitch of your voice (at least not very much).

Can helium give you a stroke?

Inhaling helium too deeply or directly from a gas cylinder is an even greater helium gas danger. The pressurised helium gas can cause a dangerous embolism. An embolism is a blockage of a blood vessel which, in this case, is caused by a gas bubble. This can cause a stroke, seizures or death.

Does helium make you laugh?

Helium is much less dense than regular air. Due to its lower density, sound travels over twice as fast through helium than it does regular air. When you breathe in helium, your voice travels much more quickly across your vocal cords. This results in the funny sounds you make when you talk after breathing helium.

Can helium change your voice?

It makes it sound high and squeaky, like a rodent from Alvin and the Chipmunks. But, surprisingly, inhaling helium doesn’t actually change the pitch of your voice. Here’s what it does to make your voice sound weird: The sounds are the same pitch, but their tone (aka sound quality or timbre) are different.

What is a hexafluoride?

: a fluoride containing six atoms of fluorine in the molecule.