Naked Science Forum

Non Life Sciences => Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology => Topic started by: Joosh on 12/09/2007 13:35:43

Title: Bottle in space
Post by: Joosh on 12/09/2007 13:35:43
Hi im new here as you may have guessed [;D]

I was wondering, if you were to take a bottle full of air into space and opened the cap, would 'the nothingnuss of space' poor into the bottle or would the air come out so the bottle caves in on itslef, if the space rushes in, surely that would mean space is made of something?

Also i heard that if an astronaut was to take his suite off in space his body ould expand and eventually pop. Is this true?
Title: Bottle in space
Post by: lightarrow on 12/09/2007 18:09:59
Hi im new here as you may have guessed [;D]

I was wondering, if you were to take a bottle full of air into space and opened the cap, would 'the nothingnuss of space' poor into the bottle or would the air come out so the bottle caves in on itslef, if the space rushes in, surely that would mean space is made of something?
Why should the bottle cave in on itself?
Quote

Also i heard that if an astronaut was to take his suite off in space his body ould expand and eventually pop. Is this true?
Look at this recent thread
http://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=9895.0
Title: Bottle in space
Post by: rosy on 12/09/2007 18:39:58
The space won't rush in- but the air will rush out.
You may have met the idea that everything is made out of molecules. In a solid the molecules are fixed relative to each other but in a gas they move about freely and will move to occupy the space available if there is more air inside than out (the air inside is at a higher pressure) than it will tend to move out of the container it's in, as in the case of a balloon deflating or of the air escaping from our hypothetical bottle-in-space.
Title: Bottle in space
Post by: m.levert on 14/09/2007 03:35:09
joosh has posed a very interesting question. what is space exactly? space would not ``rush in`` to the bottle because it was there already along with the air. any solid object takes up space, yet the object itself must also contain space.

it`s too easy just to say it`s the gap between solid objects, since that explains nothing.

current thinking suggests space is ``quantised`` or made up of particles, on the very smallest scales, which kind of falls in with our digitised way of thinking these days.

space is also flexible, and is ``bent`` by gravity and is intimately connected to time so you can`t have one without the other.(Einstein`s ``space-time``).

anyway,space is certainly not made of nothing, it`s not just a gap between stuff, it`s what the whole universe is made of, including us.