When I squeeze out the air in a self-sealing zippered top bag both sides of the vinyl bag act like they are glued together. If outer space is suppose to be a vacuum does that mean space is but two dimenssions like the vinyl bag?
2007-02-20 16:48:42 · 12 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
A vacuum is a region of space where there is no matter to be found floating around. That's not what you have in your plastic bag: there's no space in there at all.
Unless I'm missing something in your reasoning, which I may very well be, I would think that you can better approximate the vacuum of space with a light bulb.
However, there are deeper philosophical implications in your question that I'm ignoring here: you're asking what the definition of 'nothing' is, and that is a very good question.
2007-02-20 16:56:53 · answer #1 · answered by 2n2222 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Consider your zippered bag is infinitely extensible - now stretching your bag in all directions till you have the same volume on earth as the one you hold of similar volume in space. At this point you have vacuum of similar properties. Dimensions have nothing to do with it. Basically, to have a vacuum, you need not have multi-dimensional space, any existing object is in some duality with vacuum at all times of it's existence.
Outer space is only so much a vacuum as we understand it - in reality it is just a very low pressure environment - objects like light still exist in space vacuum proving that it is not a perfect vacuum. A perfect vacuum cannot exist.
2007-02-21 01:06:33 · answer #2 · answered by dupaliv 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Not really. If you suck at a soda straw, you create a partial vacuum, and the pressure of the air on the surrounding liquid causes the liquid to rise in the straw. But your lungs are not capable of creating a high vacuum; for that you need a pump. The vacuum in space is similar to what you can get with a good pump, but has far fewer gas molecules than obtain in a vacuum from the best pumps.
2007-02-21 00:53:21 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
No, the only reason the bag becomes flattened is because the pressure pressing on the bag from the outside is greater than the pressure pressing on the bag from the inside. Since the air we breathe is denser than the nothing in the bag, it becomes collapsed. We see the exact opposite when we fill the bag with something denser than the denseness of the outside of the bag. If we fill the bag with water then the pressure from the water expands the bag out to assume the most physical space it can displace.
2007-02-21 01:00:17 · answer #4 · answered by Reilly_R 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Interesting question- but I think it's the other way around. On Earth- Nature abhors a vacuum, & does whatever it can (as quickly as it can) to "fill" it. In Space- if you filled that baggie on Earth & took it up there- it'd probably pop like a balloon... -So I'd think that it'd be multi-dimensional... We have alot more "limitations" (like air pressure & gravity) on Earth- than there would be in Space.
2007-02-21 01:06:13 · answer #5 · answered by Joseph, II 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
IF you have a pressure chamber you can pump out air with out the chamber collapses This vacuum
this is similar to vacuum in space
2007-02-21 03:22:38 · answer #6 · answered by makramalla 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
the bag is not 2 dimensions. it is still 3 dimensional.
vacuum is the absence of air, at it's most simplest.
space is considered a vacuum because the presence of atomic particles is in a very small quantity spread out over a very large area.
see here for more info:
http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/dec97/873755066.As.r.html
2007-02-21 00:57:28 · answer #7 · answered by Act D 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
The bag would burst in space as there is 14.2 pounds per square inch inside it. If it were full of oxygen free liquid it would have the same effect as squeezing air on earth.
2007-02-21 00:58:41 · answer #8 · answered by ROD'R 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
a vacuum = space minus matter
observable space is 4 dimensions; x,y,z,t
2007-02-21 01:11:35 · answer #9 · answered by Anthony A 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes. Vacuum is vacuum. In deep space, it is closer to total vacuum than what we can get here on earth.
No, space is 3 dimensional.
2007-02-21 00:54:11 · answer #10 · answered by yupchagee 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋