Would I explode or implode?

[Keiran]

Has nobody ever seen 'Total Recall'.... your eyes would begin to be sucked from your body....

[Macavity]

Some young Chemist friends of mine once performed an experiment with a Bluebottle and a Vacuum Desiccator - (Un)fortunately I cannot now remember the result or the conclusion.

[AndyG63]

Hmmm... not too sure about that, last time i checked you cant breath in a vacuum ( or atleast not without an air supply) ? I would assume, If you opened your mouth and allowed air to escape from your lungs... you would simply be left breathless, so to speak. Would it not just suck everything from you lungs...

I've read this "keep your mouth open" comment before. I believe it's akin to people escaping from submarines without breathing apparatus. As you surface, you HAVE to open your mouth to let the air escape in order to equalise the pressure. Burst eardrums are not at all pleasant.

Plus if your not in a shadow, wouldnt the raidiation from the sun be a huge problem???

Maybe after half-an-hour or so you'd be wishing you'd put the factor-50 on - but for a few seconds I doubt you'd tan too much.

Andy

[p9012]

Whew!...Lots of replies.

Ok...don't hold my breath and I got 15 seconds to "run out there

and grab that hammer"...check.

I like the tab 'Tantalus' sent...From NASA: Human Body in a Vacuum

...from there I went to "Ask an Astrophysicist"...

Ask an Astrophysicist

...added this to my 'Favorites'.

What amazes me the most is where all the replies came from...

_Norfolk, UK

_Manchester, England

_Newport, S. Wales

_S.E. France

_Lincolnshire

_Greece

_Blaenau Gwent...huh?...cool-cool

_Nr. Southampton, UK

_Cheshire

_Leicester

_Wales, UK

_Airdrie

_Portsmouth

And here I sit in a little town in Central Illinois, USA...

I feel like "I'm get'n me some culture" by being here.

*sniff*....Thanks everyone.

Mark K.

[Keiran]

I've read this "keep your mouth open" comment before. I believe it's akin to people escaping from submarines without breathing apparatus. As you surface, you HAVE to open your mouth to let the air escape in order to equalise the pressure. Burst eardrums are not at all pleasant.

Andy

I know this about being submeresed, its all about the pressures, and as you rise up to the surface the air expands, and if it is not vented you lungs can burst.... but that is a change in pressure, a vacuum would be a constant? Wouldnt it? and therefore the air wouldnt be expanding, would it?.... I dont know its too early

Its is amazing that you can speak to people halfway around the world. I love subjects like these, things you know little about, but kind of understand the theory (or not ) It supurs such debate

Keiran

[Astro_Baby]

So Dave Bowmn really could pull off that stunt in 2001 - well assuming he could manuever the pod perfectly AND the explosive decompression didnnt push the pod away from the ship.

[bish]

Surely David Blaine has tried this, he's got to be the man to ask!

[AndyG63]

I know this about being submeresed, its all about the pressures, and as you rise up to the surface the air expands, and if it is not vented you lungs can burst.... but that is a change in pressure, a vacuum would be a constant? Wouldnt it? and therefore the air wouldnt be expanding, would it?.... I dont know its too early

Hi Keiran - yes, the vacuum's a constant, but there's (initially) a 1atm differential between your lungs' contents and "outside". The flow would be outwards until your lungs reached a vacuum.

This is interesting:

No serious injuries have resulted from rapid decompressions with open airways, even while wearing an oxygen mask, but disastrous, or fatal, consequences can result if the pulmonary passages are blocked, such as forceful breath-holding with the lungs full of air. Under this condition, when none of the air in the lungs can escape during a decompression, the lungs and thorax becomes over-expanded by the excessively high intrapulmonic pressure, causing actual tearing and rupture of the lung tissues and capillaries. The trapped air is forced through the lungs into the thoracic cage, and air can be injected directly into the general circulation by way of the ruptured blood vessels, with massive air bubbles moving throughout the body and lodging in vital organs such as the heart and brain.

The movement of these air bubbles is similar to the air embolism that can occur in SCUBA diving and submarine escape when an individual ascends from underwater to the surface with breath-holding. Because of lung construction, momentary breath-holding, such as swallowing or yawning, will not cause sufficient pressure in the lungs to exceed their tensile strength.

So - breathe out! Actually, just open your mouth - the quotes come from this site, and there's a guide to how long it takes to lose pressure from various volumes. If my maths is right, your lungs will be basically empty in a fraction of a second.

Once back inside with your hammer, however:

Usually, abdominal distress can be relieved after a rapid decompression by the passage of excess gas.

... you may wish to be on your own for a while.

Andy

[Keiran]

Brilliant

[Macavity]

Re. Breathlessness, I assume so. But then I have never been able to swim without a nose-clip - Hardly useful in an emergency! I think there is a "panic response" re. ingress of water, raised C02 level etc. You can comfortably (happily) breathe an inert gas - Until your demise. Not sure about a vacuum though...

[Aussie]

Your supposed to breath out all of your air so theres nothing in your lungs, and shut your eyes really tight. You can survive in space for a very short period of time but you would freeze to death pretty quickly either way, also the minute you went to open your mouth to exhale the CO2 in your lungs it would freeze and you.

Either way you would have a really tough time finding that hammer with your eyes shut.

There is however no reason at all that you would explode or implode, you would just be a human popsickle.

[Mr Spock]

Having read all this the only thing about to explode is my head...

[Keiran]

Having read all this the only thing about to explode is my head...

LOL

[great_bear]

you would freeze to death pretty quickly either way, also the minute you went to open your mouth to exhale the CO2 in your lungs it would freeze and you.

What makes you think that?

[Zakalwe]

So Dave Bowmn really could pull off that stunt in 2001 - well assuming he could manuever the pod perfectly AND the explosive decompression didnnt push the pod away from the ship.

Don't forget that the pod had an atmosphere. Bowman also backed the pod fairly tight to the emergency hatch. When he blew the hatch, the air would partially fill the airlock. OK, it would be fairly thin, but it would be better than nothing.

Incidentally, on one of the Apollo mission (was it 12?) they had problems docking with the LEM during the extraction process (extracting it from the spent booster). One of the astronauts reported distinctly hearing noises from outside the CSM (a rustling noise). The only explanation was that the continued use of the thrusters as they repeatedly tried to dock, was creating a local atmosphere, dense enough to transmit the sound of the thrusters firing.