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A 10 lb structure would have to displace something like 3500 liters of air (a cube with side lengths of about 5 ft). Maintaining a vacuum with such little mater
by af3d 4y ago
A 10 lb structure would have to displace something like 3500 liters of air (a cube with side lengths of about 5 ft). Maintaining a vacuum with such little material is highly unlikely, to say the least. Moreover, scaling the structure by a factor of 2 increases the weight by a factor of 8. So the researcher's claim that "in order to make them flow to air, we just need to make them bigger" just doesn't make much sense. The larger the "balloon", the LESS likely it is to be structurally feasible.
- gnopgnip 4y agoDoubling the length of the structure would quadruple the weight but increase the volume contained eight times.
- jws 4y agoAlso, maintaining vacuum is probably easier in larger units since the volume is increasing faster than the surface area. More gas intrudes, but there is much more space for it to intrude. The wildcard is what has to change for the thickness of the shell as it scales. That either makes it work, or be infeasible. More research required.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]