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Atmospheric question

The Warthog

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The Warthog

The Warthog

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I was wondering, you know, if you made a great big tube, and put a 90 degree bend at the end so it wouldn't get plugged with dirt, and then ran the other end of the tube out about 400,000 km, where there's a vacuum and no gravity to speak of, would it suck all the air on Earth out into space? :scratch:

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Sam

Sam

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WH, it would just fill up with atmosphere up to the height of the top of the atmosphere. Gravity would still act in the same way on the particles of atmosphere in the tube to stop them being sucked out into space. Much like if you stuck a tube in a bucket of water - it would fill up to the same height as the water in the bucket. That's what I reckon anyway :D

Sam

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timetraveller

timetraveller

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if you think about this one guys you would have the answer there starring you in the face what currently stops our atmosphere from being sucked into space answer a combination of earths gravity and the density of the gas molecules there is nothing between the upper atmosphere and the vacuum of space but our atmosphere is still here and if you wish to extrapolate to a bigger example just look at the gas giants they have massive atmospheres and no real leakage into space

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The Warthog

The Warthog

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Beamish, we should get together, but there's this little matter of 7,000 km of ocean between us. If I do show up, though, I'm a Guinness drinker.

Actually, you shouldn't need a fan, but you could put a turbine in the end to make electricity so we can all power our computers as we exhale ourselves to death.

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barkis

barkis

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Does anyone remember those vacuum tubes the used to have in offices, and some stores many years ago. They used to transfer money or document via this contraption, by placing it in a container which just fit into the tube which was in a continuous state of vacuum create by an extraction pump located somewhere in the system. Now if it were possible to construct one of those extending out into into space, in the shape of an inverted U, with a strong enough vacuum pump at one end, and a sealed capsule at the other. All that's needed is the top secton of the u to be made of a transparent material, and a corresponding transparent capsule, and a very cheap ride to have a lookaround could be achieved. arrange for the capsule to stop at the top for a decent look about, then back home.

Sounds like something Howard Hughes would have funded. :laughing2:

Ron.

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The Warthog

The Warthog

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Yeah! You could put one end of the tube at Los Angeles, near the coastline, and the other end in Boulder, CO, at 5,000 ft. Put valves at the top so you can suck the atmosphere in at Boulder, then stop it when the air arrives at the top and open the downtube to L.A. This would create a giant siphon, which would cycle the air continuously, and we could send space tourists up it. Stopping them when they arrive at L.A. could be tricky.

They still use those tubes at Home Depot in Canada.

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