3 ms·

"The subject later reported that he could feel and hear the air leaking out, and his last conscious memory was of the water on his tongue beginning to boil" Ca

• moioci 13y ago
  In a vacuum, water will promptly vaporize at virtually any temperature.
• jbert 13y ago
  > Can someone explain the boiling water on his tongue? The main thing stopping the molecules of a liquid boiling away (flying off, out of the container) is the pressure exerted by the gas above or around them. If you make the liquid molecules move faster (i.e. give them energy, i.e. heat them up), a greater proportion of them will be able to overcome this pressure. So heating increases evaporation and leads to boiling - which we're familiar with. Alternatively, if you reduce the pressure of the gas pushing the liquid molecules together, you don't need to heat up the liquid as much to get the same evaporation/boiling effect. Reduce the gas pressure enough and the liquid will boil at a very low temperature.
  • cheapsteak 13y ago
    Ah, now I understand how pressure cookers work
• NSAID 13y ago
  "Boiling" is really a liquid turning into a gas [1]. This happens when the liquid has enough energy to transition into a different state [2], that is, when the vapor pressure of the liquid [3][4] equals the surrounding pressure. Thus at the pressure given in the article (say, 0.5 psi), water can boil at around 79.6 °F / 26.4 °C [5]. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_point http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_point [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_of_vaporization http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_of_vaporization [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vapor_pressure http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vapor_pressure [4] A solid can "boil" too, but it's called sublimation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sublimation_(physics) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sublimation_(physics) [5] http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/boiling-point-water-d_926.html http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/boiling-point-water-d_926....