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How much swag?

by Angie
(UK)

How do I know how much swag to use?

Say I want a 10 ft garland with about 2 ft swag, how do I calculate the length including the swag? Is there a standard amount of swag?


Thanks,
Angie.

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starstarstarstar 		Calculating length and swag of a Balloon Garland
by: Margit

Hi Angie,

I've found some information regarding your question within the "Yahoo Balloondecorating Group". What you are looking for is the mathematical equation for a "catenary" or chainette. If you're good at maths the formula given here can help you to answer your question exactly: http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Catenary.html.

Simply put, the formula means that the swag or sag of a garland depends on how far apart you fix the ends of the garland to the ceiling or wall. If you hang a 10 ft garland from the very ends, 10 ft apart, it would have very little swag. On the other hand, if you hang it from the very ends, with the ends right next to each other, you would get about 5 ft swag (half the length of the garland).

Please see Oliver Twist's original post re this issue under this link: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/balloondecorating/message/798.

So, I am afraid I can't give you an exact answer to your question. My best guess is that you'd need about 14 ft of garland length, hung with the very ends 10 ft apart, to give you roughly 2 ft of swag or sag.

Hope that helps,
Margit

p.s.: A good instruction sheet for an air-filled balloon garland, including the material you need and lots of useful tips, you'll find here: http://lpballoons.com/docs/6.pdf


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