If there was a tube, say 3 metres in diameter which went from a sealed unit to about a mile or so outside our hemisphere into space... what would the resulting action be if you were in the sealed unit at the bottom and a (i guess) sealed hatch was opened.
Would you be sucked into outer space? also what if there wasn't a sealed unit at the bottom, just a tube from space down to the ground.. would the oxygen be sucked out??
2006-09-21 01:27:46 · 17 answers · asked by david s 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
I'm still confused!! amazing what a long train journey does to you.
ignoring the sealed unit.. would the atmosphere or oxygen be sucked out into space? if i was at the bottom would i be sucked into space too?
2006-09-21 01:38:34 · update #1
Toogether...
Nice one!! so what you are saying is because of the gravity, the result would that I wouldnt be sucked out into space.
Is there a way then which I (well not me personally) could be taken up in the vacuum? prob' a cheap and efficent way to get people into space.. not sure how to get them back yet though LOL
2006-09-21 01:42:25 · update #2
So you're sitting in the bottom of your tube, presumably in a space suit because you're in a vacuum. Then you open up the bottom of the tube and air rushes in, creating a wind that moves up the tube at nearly the speed of sound. This wind will persist for several minutes, until the pressure at the open bottom of the tube is equalized. What happens to you? Well, let's hope your space suit is pretty tough, and doesn't get ripped apart. You will be accelerated upwards by the wind, but your speed won't get up to the full speed of the wind (around 800 km/hr) because of aerodynamic effects. You'll wind up traveling slower than this by the freefall speed of a human in air, and you'll initially be moving at around 600 km/hr. You'll get maybe 10 or 20 km above the Earth's surface, and then the wind will slow, oscillate for a while, and then stop. You'll find yourself in the situation of someone who has just stepped off a balloon 10 or 20 km up in the air---you'll fall back down through the tube at a freefall velocity of about 200 km/h and hit the ground. Ouch.
Even if you could get out the top of the tube (say, by having a machine that blew extra air into the bottom of the tube), you'd still be at rest with respect to the Earth when you emerged from the top of the tube. You would then begin to fall. You still need some way to achieve orbital velocity of around 50,000 km/hr.
2006-09-21 02:41:36 · answer #1 · answered by cosmo 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
A tube that went from the ground to outer space would have the same characteristics as the atmosphere, higher pressure at the bottom of the tube tappering off to a lower and lower pressure at the top of the tube. The only difference would be that the air inside the tube would not be affected much by winds outside. Now a sealed tube would be different depending on what was done after sealing it. Would the air be allowed to remain in the tube? Would it be pumped out? The air would not be sucked out just because the top was open to outer space, it is gravity which holds the air down on our planet.
2006-09-21 01:37:07 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It would be no different that a tube in the water. Water rushes in to fill the tube to the same level as outside the tube when the hatch at the bottom is opened. So air would rush into the tube and rise to the same level as the air outside the tube. Of course, since air is a gas and water a liquid, there would be no sharply defined top, the air in the tube would just get thinner with distance from the ground at the same rate it does outside the tube, after enough air had rushed into the tube through the open hatch at the bottom.
2006-09-21 02:03:32 · answer #3 · answered by campbelp2002 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Interesting. I think these things and that's why I can't sleep.
I don't know anyone that can fit in a 3 inch diameter tube, but if you could you might get sucked out if you were in the middle of the tube, but not at the bottom. As for the second question, I don't think the atmosphere is thick enough to prevent the escape of gases, so your experiment is already happening. I think the force of gravity would be stronger.
2006-09-21 01:41:22 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
When the tube decompressed in space, the water in your body would boil instantly. You would expand , boil, and explode at once. The explosion would be from instant decompression and steam from the boiling water in your body. Yee-uck!
In a lab, water is boiled without heat when air pressure is removed from a chamber it sits in.
The oxygen would not be sucked out of the second extended tube. Our atmosphere has weight. You are surrounded by about 4000 psi right now. Gravity would cause the air to settle in the second tube, just as it does on the rest of the planet. The air would be thinner, or have less pressure as altitude increased.
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2006-09-21 01:36:57 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
No because gravity would keep it down and if you were in space in a sealed unit 3 m in dia you would die anyway from lack of oxygen and if the seal broke or opened you would get sucked out
2006-09-21 01:32:02 · answer #6 · answered by alismudge 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I reckon it could be an end to the world as we know it
don't try it, the dinosaurs did and look what happened to them - all got sucked into space, one by one - although they did use a tube with a considerably wider diameter
2006-09-21 01:40:31 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Race yah to the Patent Office!
2006-09-21 01:36:19 · answer #8 · answered by fatherf.lotski 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
not really the gravity at the surface would keep you and the air down.you would when you are in space because there is little gravity to keep the air in the space capsule.
2006-09-21 05:35:59 · answer #9 · answered by hkyboy96 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You could always breathe down from it, like a straw and let us know... if you come back tomorrow, we'll know we got it wrong and you got an answer... if you don't... well then we know not to try it and wish you a safe crossing to the light:-)
2006-09-21 01:34:16 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋