B3TA fixes the worldMoon Monkey says: Turn into Jeremy Clarkson for a moment, and tell us about the things that are so obviously wrong with the world, and how they should be fixed. Extra points for ludicrous over-simplification, blatant mis-representation, and humourous knob-gags.
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Scaryduck LIKES EGG, Thu 22 Sep 2011, 12:53)
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You know what really makes my blood boil?Being exposed to the vacuum of space, as the lack of atmospheric pressure drastically lowers the boiling point thereof.
(, Tue 27 Sep 2011, 22:21, 2 replies)
You don't like that?It was an amazing experience for me. Really took my breath away.
(, Tue 27 Sep 2011, 22:26, closed)
No, it doesn't.When exposed to vacuum, your blood does not boil.
Films are not actually good tutorials for physics.
Your blood pressure is around - normally - 10% of atmospheric pressure above your environment.
This is true if you're sitting in an armchair, or exposed to the vacuum of space.
For the blood to boil, the boiling point of water at 10% of atmospheric pressure would need to be under body temperature.
The handy calculator at www.see.ed.ac.uk/~jwp/newWork/Chemeng/Chemeng/water.html informs us that water boils at 37C when it's at 6% of atmospheric pressure - so the bodies internal pressure is 4% of atmospheric pressure too high for this to occur.
(the percentages of atmospheric pressure are atmospheric pressure at sea level).
When you are exposed to the vacuum of space, if you do not hold your breath, then as the blood flows round your lungs, instead of picking up oxygen, it dumps all its stored oxygen into the very low oxygen environment of your lungs.
This means that the blood coming out of the lungs is almost entirely oxygen free.
You pass out within 10s.
If you're brought into atmospheric pressure within a minute or so, and given artificial respiration, you're fine.
Otherwise you rapidly expire.
Yes, during this time internal gasses will expand, and the extremities begin to swell, as well as the surface of your eyes boiling and your ears popping.
But this all happens well after you pass out, and mostly well after you're irrecoverable.
Oh - if you try to hold your breath however, your lungs explode, and you do die in a very messy manner, with lots of blood and lung tissue coming out of your mouth, and possibly even your torso swelling significantly.
'2001' got this - mostly - right.
'Total Recall' was basically bollocks.
(, Wed 28 Sep 2011, 2:08, closed)
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