lux wrote:Boethius wrote:
For instance if you open a balloon at sea level the air seeps out slowly, based on pressure difference. If you want to empty the balloon faster you exert a force, press on the balloon and the air comes out faster. If you try to same experiment inside a vacuum you cannot press on the balloon to make the air come out faster, the air goes flying out of the balloon without any force, because the nature of the vacuum has already done all the work, for free, trying to equalize the pressure inside the vacuum with that inside the balloon.
This should be easy to prove with a vacuum chamber and an air-filled balloon remotely released within it.
Can you cite an example of such a proof being performed and offer some evidence of its legitimacy?
Interesting you say this as I recently found myself conversing (I.R.L.!) about early cathode rays, or electron beam technology, with a person who claimed to work on their development in the 50's or 60's, (Raytheon, if I recall) and saw demonstrations where huge steel blocks were cut instantly. Then, they re-welded them, perfectly and invisibly - all in-situ!
I am sure the flaw in this demonstrative method is obvious....
In order to show anything was happening at all, in the 'vacuum' (imperfect, as of course even if the effort to create an 'absolute vacuum' were made, it would cease to be so when, well, anything at all, were introduced to it) which was required for the 'ray beam' to function, it was claimed to me that a balloon (inflated) was placed on the far side of this (6 inch I think) cube of steel, and the popping of it observed as proof of the beam piercing the block.
I immediately dismissed any doubt about the nonsense nature of the claims, as I was sure that the gas, of whatever varieties, in the balloon, would seek to occupy the gas-vacuum and burst the balloon, pretty much instantly.
Am I wrong? I have certainly never tried it myself, but the survival of an even partially inflated balloon in a gas/imperfect vacuum seems impossible, but I am ready to learn otherwise.