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A very small part of an office building is gone, leaving vacuum. How does this affect its surroundings?
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A small perfect sphere is suddenly gone. Everything inside is teleported somewhere -- through space or even maybe through time, we're not sure. It's a small sphere, just enough to fit a human sitting on a chair. The perfect vaporization affects everything -- most of the chair, large part of the desk, air. What's left behind is just vacuum. No flash, no explosion, no sound. (The fact that this can happen is the only part I can/want to handwave, but bonus points for a reality check here.)
But what happens to this space moments after it happens? What would a blob of empty space do when placed in the atmosphere -- precisely, in an office full of tech equipment. Would there be an explosion after all? Would it create an energy blast? Would it feel like a wind coming from it or going towards it? Could it do something to the laptops and phones nearby?
science-based atmosphere vacuum
edited 17 mins ago
RonJohn
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asked 5 hours ago
Lazar Ljubenović
1214
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up vote
4
down vote
favorite
A small perfect sphere is suddenly gone. Everything inside is teleported somewhere -- through space or even maybe through time, we're not sure. It's a small sphere, just enough to fit a human sitting on a chair. The perfect vaporization affects everything -- most of the chair, large part of the desk, air. What's left behind is just vacuum. No flash, no explosion, no sound. (The fact that this can happen is the only part I can/want to handwave, but bonus points for a reality check here.)
But what happens to this space moments after it happens? What would a blob of empty space do when placed in the atmosphere -- precisely, in an office full of tech equipment. Would there be an explosion after all? Would it create an energy blast? Would it feel like a wind coming from it or going towards it? Could it do something to the laptops and phones nearby?
science-based atmosphere vacuum
edited 17 mins ago
RonJohn
11.9k12658
asked 5 hours ago
Lazar Ljubenović
1214
New contributor
Lazar Ljubenović is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
Suggested an edit to remove the superscript. Putting something in parenthesis is enough to show that it isn't important, and the small text is hard to read.
– John Locke
2 hours ago
There is a kind of underwater crustacean that does exactly this: it retracts it's tail so fast that water can't keep up with this speed. It results in pressure explosion that kills nearby plankton creatures.
– Barafu Albino
39 mins ago
I edited the title so that "part of the world" would not imply "part of the Earth". If you disagree with it, feel free to revert the edit.
– RonJohn
15 mins ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
4
down vote
favorite
up vote
4
down vote
favorite
A small perfect sphere is suddenly gone. Everything inside is teleported somewhere -- through space or even maybe through time, we're not sure. It's a small sphere, just enough to fit a human sitting on a chair. The perfect vaporization affects everything -- most of the chair, large part of the desk, air. What's left behind is just vacuum. No flash, no explosion, no sound. (The fact that this can happen is the only part I can/want to handwave, but bonus points for a reality check here.)
But what happens to this space moments after it happens? What would a blob of empty space do when placed in the atmosphere -- precisely, in an office full of tech equipment. Would there be an explosion after all? Would it create an energy blast? Would it feel like a wind coming from it or going towards it? Could it do something to the laptops and phones nearby?
science-based atmosphere vacuum
edited 17 mins ago
RonJohn
11.9k12658
asked 5 hours ago
Lazar Ljubenović
1214
New contributor
Lazar Ljubenović is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
A small perfect sphere is suddenly gone. Everything inside is teleported somewhere -- through space or even maybe through time, we're not sure. It's a small sphere, just enough to fit a human sitting on a chair. The perfect vaporization affects everything -- most of the chair, large part of the desk, air. What's left behind is just vacuum. No flash, no explosion, no sound. (The fact that this can happen is the only part I can/want to handwave, but bonus points for a reality check here.)
But what happens to this space moments after it happens? What would a blob of empty space do when placed in the atmosphere -- precisely, in an office full of tech equipment. Would there be an explosion after all? Would it create an energy blast? Would it feel like a wind coming from it or going towards it? Could it do something to the laptops and phones nearby?
science-based atmosphere vacuum
science-based atmosphere vacuum
edited 17 mins ago
RonJohn
11.9k12658
asked 5 hours ago
Lazar Ljubenović
1214
New contributor
Lazar Ljubenović is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
edited 17 mins ago
RonJohn
11.9k12658
asked 5 hours ago
Lazar Ljubenović
1214
New contributor
Lazar Ljubenović is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
edited 17 mins ago
RonJohn
11.9k12658
edited 17 mins ago
RonJohn
11.9k12658
edited 17 mins ago
RonJohn
11.9k12658
11.9k12658
asked 5 hours ago
Lazar Ljubenović
1214
New contributor
Lazar Ljubenović is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
asked 5 hours ago
Lazar Ljubenović
1214
asked 5 hours ago
Lazar Ljubenović
1214
1214
New contributor
Lazar Ljubenović is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
New contributor
Lazar Ljubenović is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
Lazar Ljubenović is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
Suggested an edit to remove the superscript. Putting something in parenthesis is enough to show that it isn't important, and the small text is hard to read.
– John Locke
2 hours ago
There is a kind of underwater crustacean that does exactly this: it retracts it's tail so fast that water can't keep up with this speed. It results in pressure explosion that kills nearby plankton creatures.
– Barafu Albino
39 mins ago
I edited the title so that "part of the world" would not imply "part of the Earth". If you disagree with it, feel free to revert the edit.
– RonJohn
15 mins ago
add a comment |Â
Suggested an edit to remove the superscript. Putting something in parenthesis is enough to show that it isn't important, and the small text is hard to read.
– John Locke
2 hours ago
There is a kind of underwater crustacean that does exactly this: it retracts it's tail so fast that water can't keep up with this speed. It results in pressure explosion that kills nearby plankton creatures.
– Barafu Albino
39 mins ago
I edited the title so that "part of the world" would not imply "part of the Earth". If you disagree with it, feel free to revert the edit.
– RonJohn
15 mins ago
Suggested an edit to remove the superscript. Putting something in parenthesis is enough to show that it isn't important, and the small text is hard to read.
– John Locke
2 hours ago
Suggested an edit to remove the superscript. Putting something in parenthesis is enough to show that it isn't important, and the small text is hard to read.
– John Locke
2 hours ago
There is a kind of underwater crustacean that does exactly this: it retracts it's tail so fast that water can't keep up with this speed. It results in pressure explosion that kills nearby plankton creatures.
– Barafu Albino
39 mins ago
There is a kind of underwater crustacean that does exactly this: it retracts it's tail so fast that water can't keep up with this speed. It results in pressure explosion that kills nearby plankton creatures.
– Barafu Albino
39 mins ago
I edited the title so that "part of the world" would not imply "part of the Earth". If you disagree with it, feel free to revert the edit.
– RonJohn
15 mins ago
I edited the title so that "part of the world" would not imply "part of the Earth". If you disagree with it, feel free to revert the edit.
– RonJohn
15 mins ago
add a comment |Â
3 Answers
3
active
oldest
votes
up vote
9
down vote
A very similar question was covered in What if series, applied to a glass.
Quoting from there:
We’ll imagine the vacuums appear at time $t=0$.
For the first handful of microseconds, nothing happens. On this timescale, even the air molecules are nearly stationary. For the most part, air molecules jiggle around at speeds of a few hundred meters per second. But at any given time, some happen to be moving faster than others. The fastest few are moving at over 1000 meters per second. These are the first to drift into the vacuum.
After a few hundred microseconds, the air rushing into the glass on the right fills the vacuum completely and rams into the surface of the water, sending a pressure wave through the liquid. The sides of the glass bulge slightly, but they contain the pressure and do not break. A shockwave reverberates through the water and back into the air, joining the turbulence already there.
In a few more milliseconds, it reaches the humans’ ears as a loud bang.
The bang will be pretty loud. I happened once to force open a vacuum chamber not yet fully vented, and though it was not in deep vacuum (just few millibar) it sounded like somebody had given a strong hit with a hammer.
Maybe the shockwave would be strong enough to shatter some fragile glass and damage some MEMS (like the microphones in the telephones).
answered 5 hours ago
L.Dutch♦
62.7k18145294
If you're vacuum chamber did the sound of a hammer something $5m^3$ big would probably shatter all the windows of the house and the vase of your mother-in-law
– Jean-Abdel
5 hours ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
7
down vote
What would a blob of empty space do when placed in the atmosphere -- precisely, in an office full of tech equipment. Would there be an explosion after all? Would it create an energy blast? Would it feel like a wind coming from it or going towards it? Could it do something to the laptops and phones nearby?
The same thing that happens after a lightning strike heats up the air so much that the hot gasses expand, causing a partial vacuum where the lightning was: air rushes back in really fast because nature abhors a vacuum.
And we all know what goes with lightning: a really loud thunder clap that -- if close enough -- breaks glass and sets off car alarms when the rapidly in-rushing air bounces against other bits of in-rushing air and bounces back.
answered 4 hours ago
RonJohn
11.9k12658
add a comment |Â
up vote
2
down vote
This is somewhat similar to the situation in a "vacuum cannon" - one of those research/demonstration devices where they accelerate light objects like ping pong balls or meteorite models to very high speeds, way past mach 1, by
The problem is, there's always extra noise involved with those, like breaking the diaphragms and the thing they're firing hitting stuff.
My guess here is that it would be very noticeable but not very damaging=there would be a sudden wind towards the hole and a drop in pressure that would really thump your eardrums, but any kind of sonic wave from the air colliding in the middle of the hole would be almost nothing because its surrounded by a much bigger shell of rarified air, blowing directly towards it. Even if you were right at the boundary when it disappeared, I can't see it would be any different than a very very hard gust of wind.
I can't see how there could be any supersonic effects or any overpressures over 1 bar, outside a spherical void, because all the energy and air involved in the middle would have to reduce the pressure and total energy outside the void... which geometrically is going to be bigger (although that effect obviously goes away the bigger the void is, until at some huge size you could pretend the boundry was a flat plane i guess)
Now if the area that suddeny becomes vacuum had some interesting shapes, I think you could produce weird jet effects by changing the shape, but i still dont see how you can transfer much energy outside the area if the entire area disappears at one time. Those vacuum cannons work by breaking the membranes at different times.
TLDR: i think people right at the boundary would get blasted off their feet by wind or smashed by cars or buildings blowing onto them. They wouldn't have permanent hearing damage or even burst eardrums, but they'd all go OW what was that whomp noise. They would all get really cold really fast but very briefly, and there might be a wave of sudden white mist that went away in seconds.
people standing around 2 radiuses or more from the center of the void would probably just feel a strong gust of wind and hear a huge WHOMP noise, and 3 or 4 radiuses people would just hear a weird echoey whomp.
super short still TL still DR: I think it would be pretty underwhelming, there's a lot less kinetic energy involved than a small bomb or something, and less transmission of it.
answered 3 hours ago
Gaplant
211
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Gaplant is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
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3 Answers
3
active
oldest
votes
3 Answers
3
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
up vote
9
down vote
A very similar question was covered in What if series, applied to a glass.
Quoting from there:
We’ll imagine the vacuums appear at time $t=0$.
For the first handful of microseconds, nothing happens. On this timescale, even the air molecules are nearly stationary. For the most part, air molecules jiggle around at speeds of a few hundred meters per second. But at any given time, some happen to be moving faster than others. The fastest few are moving at over 1000 meters per second. These are the first to drift into the vacuum.
After a few hundred microseconds, the air rushing into the glass on the right fills the vacuum completely and rams into the surface of the water, sending a pressure wave through the liquid. The sides of the glass bulge slightly, but they contain the pressure and do not break. A shockwave reverberates through the water and back into the air, joining the turbulence already there.
In a few more milliseconds, it reaches the humans’ ears as a loud bang.
The bang will be pretty loud. I happened once to force open a vacuum chamber not yet fully vented, and though it was not in deep vacuum (just few millibar) it sounded like somebody had given a strong hit with a hammer.
Maybe the shockwave would be strong enough to shatter some fragile glass and damage some MEMS (like the microphones in the telephones).
answered 5 hours ago
L.Dutch♦
62.7k18145294
If you're vacuum chamber did the sound of a hammer something $5m^3$ big would probably shatter all the windows of the house and the vase of your mother-in-law
– Jean-Abdel
5 hours ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
9
down vote
A very similar question was covered in What if series, applied to a glass.
Quoting from there:
We’ll imagine the vacuums appear at time $t=0$.
For the first handful of microseconds, nothing happens. On this timescale, even the air molecules are nearly stationary. For the most part, air molecules jiggle around at speeds of a few hundred meters per second. But at any given time, some happen to be moving faster than others. The fastest few are moving at over 1000 meters per second. These are the first to drift into the vacuum.
After a few hundred microseconds, the air rushing into the glass on the right fills the vacuum completely and rams into the surface of the water, sending a pressure wave through the liquid. The sides of the glass bulge slightly, but they contain the pressure and do not break. A shockwave reverberates through the water and back into the air, joining the turbulence already there.
In a few more milliseconds, it reaches the humans’ ears as a loud bang.
The bang will be pretty loud. I happened once to force open a vacuum chamber not yet fully vented, and though it was not in deep vacuum (just few millibar) it sounded like somebody had given a strong hit with a hammer.
Maybe the shockwave would be strong enough to shatter some fragile glass and damage some MEMS (like the microphones in the telephones).
answered 5 hours ago
L.Dutch♦
62.7k18145294
If you're vacuum chamber did the sound of a hammer something $5m^3$ big would probably shatter all the windows of the house and the vase of your mother-in-law
– Jean-Abdel
5 hours ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
9
down vote
up vote
9
down vote
A very similar question was covered in What if series, applied to a glass.
Quoting from there:
We’ll imagine the vacuums appear at time $t=0$.
For the first handful of microseconds, nothing happens. On this timescale, even the air molecules are nearly stationary. For the most part, air molecules jiggle around at speeds of a few hundred meters per second. But at any given time, some happen to be moving faster than others. The fastest few are moving at over 1000 meters per second. These are the first to drift into the vacuum.
After a few hundred microseconds, the air rushing into the glass on the right fills the vacuum completely and rams into the surface of the water, sending a pressure wave through the liquid. The sides of the glass bulge slightly, but they contain the pressure and do not break. A shockwave reverberates through the water and back into the air, joining the turbulence already there.
In a few more milliseconds, it reaches the humans’ ears as a loud bang.
The bang will be pretty loud. I happened once to force open a vacuum chamber not yet fully vented, and though it was not in deep vacuum (just few millibar) it sounded like somebody had given a strong hit with a hammer.
Maybe the shockwave would be strong enough to shatter some fragile glass and damage some MEMS (like the microphones in the telephones).
answered 5 hours ago
L.Dutch♦
62.7k18145294
A very similar question was covered in What if series, applied to a glass.
Quoting from there:
We’ll imagine the vacuums appear at time $t=0$.
For the first handful of microseconds, nothing happens. On this timescale, even the air molecules are nearly stationary. For the most part, air molecules jiggle around at speeds of a few hundred meters per second. But at any given time, some happen to be moving faster than others. The fastest few are moving at over 1000 meters per second. These are the first to drift into the vacuum.
After a few hundred microseconds, the air rushing into the glass on the right fills the vacuum completely and rams into the surface of the water, sending a pressure wave through the liquid. The sides of the glass bulge slightly, but they contain the pressure and do not break. A shockwave reverberates through the water and back into the air, joining the turbulence already there.
In a few more milliseconds, it reaches the humans’ ears as a loud bang.
The bang will be pretty loud. I happened once to force open a vacuum chamber not yet fully vented, and though it was not in deep vacuum (just few millibar) it sounded like somebody had given a strong hit with a hammer.
Maybe the shockwave would be strong enough to shatter some fragile glass and damage some MEMS (like the microphones in the telephones).
answered 5 hours ago
L.Dutch♦
62.7k18145294
answered 5 hours ago
L.Dutch♦
62.7k18145294
answered 5 hours ago
L.Dutch♦
62.7k18145294
answered 5 hours ago
L.Dutch♦
62.7k18145294
62.7k18145294
If you're vacuum chamber did the sound of a hammer something $5m^3$ big would probably shatter all the windows of the house and the vase of your mother-in-law
– Jean-Abdel
5 hours ago
add a comment |Â
If you're vacuum chamber did the sound of a hammer something $5m^3$ big would probably shatter all the windows of the house and the vase of your mother-in-law
– Jean-Abdel
5 hours ago
If you're vacuum chamber did the sound of a hammer something $5m^3$ big would probably shatter all the windows of the house and the vase of your mother-in-law
– Jean-Abdel
5 hours ago
If you're vacuum chamber did the sound of a hammer something $5m^3$ big would probably shatter all the windows of the house and the vase of your mother-in-law
– Jean-Abdel
5 hours ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
7
down vote
What would a blob of empty space do when placed in the atmosphere -- precisely, in an office full of tech equipment. Would there be an explosion after all? Would it create an energy blast? Would it feel like a wind coming from it or going towards it? Could it do something to the laptops and phones nearby?
The same thing that happens after a lightning strike heats up the air so much that the hot gasses expand, causing a partial vacuum where the lightning was: air rushes back in really fast because nature abhors a vacuum.
And we all know what goes with lightning: a really loud thunder clap that -- if close enough -- breaks glass and sets off car alarms when the rapidly in-rushing air bounces against other bits of in-rushing air and bounces back.
answered 4 hours ago
RonJohn
11.9k12658
add a comment |Â
up vote
7
down vote
What would a blob of empty space do when placed in the atmosphere -- precisely, in an office full of tech equipment. Would there be an explosion after all? Would it create an energy blast? Would it feel like a wind coming from it or going towards it? Could it do something to the laptops and phones nearby?
The same thing that happens after a lightning strike heats up the air so much that the hot gasses expand, causing a partial vacuum where the lightning was: air rushes back in really fast because nature abhors a vacuum.
And we all know what goes with lightning: a really loud thunder clap that -- if close enough -- breaks glass and sets off car alarms when the rapidly in-rushing air bounces against other bits of in-rushing air and bounces back.
answered 4 hours ago
RonJohn
11.9k12658
add a comment |Â
up vote
7
down vote
up vote
7
down vote
What would a blob of empty space do when placed in the atmosphere -- precisely, in an office full of tech equipment. Would there be an explosion after all? Would it create an energy blast? Would it feel like a wind coming from it or going towards it? Could it do something to the laptops and phones nearby?
The same thing that happens after a lightning strike heats up the air so much that the hot gasses expand, causing a partial vacuum where the lightning was: air rushes back in really fast because nature abhors a vacuum.
And we all know what goes with lightning: a really loud thunder clap that -- if close enough -- breaks glass and sets off car alarms when the rapidly in-rushing air bounces against other bits of in-rushing air and bounces back.
answered 4 hours ago
RonJohn
11.9k12658
What would a blob of empty space do when placed in the atmosphere -- precisely, in an office full of tech equipment. Would there be an explosion after all? Would it create an energy blast? Would it feel like a wind coming from it or going towards it? Could it do something to the laptops and phones nearby?
The same thing that happens after a lightning strike heats up the air so much that the hot gasses expand, causing a partial vacuum where the lightning was: air rushes back in really fast because nature abhors a vacuum.
And we all know what goes with lightning: a really loud thunder clap that -- if close enough -- breaks glass and sets off car alarms when the rapidly in-rushing air bounces against other bits of in-rushing air and bounces back.
answered 4 hours ago
RonJohn
11.9k12658
answered 4 hours ago
RonJohn
11.9k12658
answered 4 hours ago
RonJohn
11.9k12658
answered 4 hours ago
RonJohn
11.9k12658
11.9k12658
add a comment |Â
add a comment |Â
up vote
2
down vote
This is somewhat similar to the situation in a "vacuum cannon" - one of those research/demonstration devices where they accelerate light objects like ping pong balls or meteorite models to very high speeds, way past mach 1, by
The problem is, there's always extra noise involved with those, like breaking the diaphragms and the thing they're firing hitting stuff.
My guess here is that it would be very noticeable but not very damaging=there would be a sudden wind towards the hole and a drop in pressure that would really thump your eardrums, but any kind of sonic wave from the air colliding in the middle of the hole would be almost nothing because its surrounded by a much bigger shell of rarified air, blowing directly towards it. Even if you were right at the boundary when it disappeared, I can't see it would be any different than a very very hard gust of wind.
I can't see how there could be any supersonic effects or any overpressures over 1 bar, outside a spherical void, because all the energy and air involved in the middle would have to reduce the pressure and total energy outside the void... which geometrically is going to be bigger (although that effect obviously goes away the bigger the void is, until at some huge size you could pretend the boundry was a flat plane i guess)
Now if the area that suddeny becomes vacuum had some interesting shapes, I think you could produce weird jet effects by changing the shape, but i still dont see how you can transfer much energy outside the area if the entire area disappears at one time. Those vacuum cannons work by breaking the membranes at different times.
TLDR: i think people right at the boundary would get blasted off their feet by wind or smashed by cars or buildings blowing onto them. They wouldn't have permanent hearing damage or even burst eardrums, but they'd all go OW what was that whomp noise. They would all get really cold really fast but very briefly, and there might be a wave of sudden white mist that went away in seconds.
people standing around 2 radiuses or more from the center of the void would probably just feel a strong gust of wind and hear a huge WHOMP noise, and 3 or 4 radiuses people would just hear a weird echoey whomp.
super short still TL still DR: I think it would be pretty underwhelming, there's a lot less kinetic energy involved than a small bomb or something, and less transmission of it.
answered 3 hours ago
Gaplant
211
New contributor
Gaplant is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
add a comment |Â
up vote
2
down vote
This is somewhat similar to the situation in a "vacuum cannon" - one of those research/demonstration devices where they accelerate light objects like ping pong balls or meteorite models to very high speeds, way past mach 1, by
The problem is, there's always extra noise involved with those, like breaking the diaphragms and the thing they're firing hitting stuff.
My guess here is that it would be very noticeable but not very damaging=there would be a sudden wind towards the hole and a drop in pressure that would really thump your eardrums, but any kind of sonic wave from the air colliding in the middle of the hole would be almost nothing because its surrounded by a much bigger shell of rarified air, blowing directly towards it. Even if you were right at the boundary when it disappeared, I can't see it would be any different than a very very hard gust of wind.
I can't see how there could be any supersonic effects or any overpressures over 1 bar, outside a spherical void, because all the energy and air involved in the middle would have to reduce the pressure and total energy outside the void... which geometrically is going to be bigger (although that effect obviously goes away the bigger the void is, until at some huge size you could pretend the boundry was a flat plane i guess)
Now if the area that suddeny becomes vacuum had some interesting shapes, I think you could produce weird jet effects by changing the shape, but i still dont see how you can transfer much energy outside the area if the entire area disappears at one time. Those vacuum cannons work by breaking the membranes at different times.
TLDR: i think people right at the boundary would get blasted off their feet by wind or smashed by cars or buildings blowing onto them. They wouldn't have permanent hearing damage or even burst eardrums, but they'd all go OW what was that whomp noise. They would all get really cold really fast but very briefly, and there might be a wave of sudden white mist that went away in seconds.
people standing around 2 radiuses or more from the center of the void would probably just feel a strong gust of wind and hear a huge WHOMP noise, and 3 or 4 radiuses people would just hear a weird echoey whomp.
super short still TL still DR: I think it would be pretty underwhelming, there's a lot less kinetic energy involved than a small bomb or something, and less transmission of it.
answered 3 hours ago
Gaplant
211
New contributor
Gaplant is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
add a comment |Â
up vote
2
down vote
up vote
2
down vote
This is somewhat similar to the situation in a "vacuum cannon" - one of those research/demonstration devices where they accelerate light objects like ping pong balls or meteorite models to very high speeds, way past mach 1, by
The problem is, there's always extra noise involved with those, like breaking the diaphragms and the thing they're firing hitting stuff.
My guess here is that it would be very noticeable but not very damaging=there would be a sudden wind towards the hole and a drop in pressure that would really thump your eardrums, but any kind of sonic wave from the air colliding in the middle of the hole would be almost nothing because its surrounded by a much bigger shell of rarified air, blowing directly towards it. Even if you were right at the boundary when it disappeared, I can't see it would be any different than a very very hard gust of wind.
I can't see how there could be any supersonic effects or any overpressures over 1 bar, outside a spherical void, because all the energy and air involved in the middle would have to reduce the pressure and total energy outside the void... which geometrically is going to be bigger (although that effect obviously goes away the bigger the void is, until at some huge size you could pretend the boundry was a flat plane i guess)
Now if the area that suddeny becomes vacuum had some interesting shapes, I think you could produce weird jet effects by changing the shape, but i still dont see how you can transfer much energy outside the area if the entire area disappears at one time. Those vacuum cannons work by breaking the membranes at different times.
TLDR: i think people right at the boundary would get blasted off their feet by wind or smashed by cars or buildings blowing onto them. They wouldn't have permanent hearing damage or even burst eardrums, but they'd all go OW what was that whomp noise. They would all get really cold really fast but very briefly, and there might be a wave of sudden white mist that went away in seconds.
people standing around 2 radiuses or more from the center of the void would probably just feel a strong gust of wind and hear a huge WHOMP noise, and 3 or 4 radiuses people would just hear a weird echoey whomp.
super short still TL still DR: I think it would be pretty underwhelming, there's a lot less kinetic energy involved than a small bomb or something, and less transmission of it.
answered 3 hours ago
Gaplant
211
New contributor
Gaplant is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
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This is somewhat similar to the situation in a "vacuum cannon" - one of those research/demonstration devices where they accelerate light objects like ping pong balls or meteorite models to very high speeds, way past mach 1, by
The problem is, there's always extra noise involved with those, like breaking the diaphragms and the thing they're firing hitting stuff.
My guess here is that it would be very noticeable but not very damaging=there would be a sudden wind towards the hole and a drop in pressure that would really thump your eardrums, but any kind of sonic wave from the air colliding in the middle of the hole would be almost nothing because its surrounded by a much bigger shell of rarified air, blowing directly towards it. Even if you were right at the boundary when it disappeared, I can't see it would be any different than a very very hard gust of wind.
I can't see how there could be any supersonic effects or any overpressures over 1 bar, outside a spherical void, because all the energy and air involved in the middle would have to reduce the pressure and total energy outside the void... which geometrically is going to be bigger (although that effect obviously goes away the bigger the void is, until at some huge size you could pretend the boundry was a flat plane i guess)
Now if the area that suddeny becomes vacuum had some interesting shapes, I think you could produce weird jet effects by changing the shape, but i still dont see how you can transfer much energy outside the area if the entire area disappears at one time. Those vacuum cannons work by breaking the membranes at different times.
TLDR: i think people right at the boundary would get blasted off their feet by wind or smashed by cars or buildings blowing onto them. They wouldn't have permanent hearing damage or even burst eardrums, but they'd all go OW what was that whomp noise. They would all get really cold really fast but very briefly, and there might be a wave of sudden white mist that went away in seconds.
people standing around 2 radiuses or more from the center of the void would probably just feel a strong gust of wind and hear a huge WHOMP noise, and 3 or 4 radiuses people would just hear a weird echoey whomp.
super short still TL still DR: I think it would be pretty underwhelming, there's a lot less kinetic energy involved than a small bomb or something, and less transmission of it.
answered 3 hours ago
Gaplant
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answered 3 hours ago
Gaplant
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answered 3 hours ago
Gaplant
211
answered 3 hours ago
Gaplant
211
211
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Gaplant is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
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Lazar Ljubenović is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
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Suggested an edit to remove the superscript. Putting something in parenthesis is enough to show that it isn't important, and the small text is hard to read.
– John Locke
2 hours ago
There is a kind of underwater crustacean that does exactly this: it retracts it's tail so fast that water can't keep up with this speed. It results in pressure explosion that kills nearby plankton creatures.
– Barafu Albino
39 mins ago
I edited the title so that "part of the world" would not imply "part of the Earth". If you disagree with it, feel free to revert the edit.
– RonJohn
15 mins ago