Water pressure increases by 10,000 pa per meter (rhogh, rho=1000 kg/m^3, g~10m/s^2), so total pressure is 50 kpa, or 1/2 earth atmospheric pressure.
One side of that hole has ambient pressure of 1 atm. The other side has that plus water pressure totalling 1.5 atm.
A pressure is just an energy density. Multiply by the cross-sectional area of the interface to get the energy gradient across the interface. An energy gradient is a force. We don’t have a measure of the cross-sectional area of the hole, but if we expect a person to fit through let’s call it 1m^2.
50 kpa = 50 kJ/m^3, so total force felt across this opening is 50kN which is the equivalent weight of five metric tons.
Size of the hole absolutely matters. If it’s only the size of a fist (10cm x 10cm) then instead of 5 metric tons it’s only 50 kg of equivalent weight, or about the weight of a person and easily survivable.
Remember a vacuum does not have suction it’s the air that presses things under vacuum together. One atm is actually quite a lot but we can withstand that as it’s pressing at us from all sides including inside.
Let’s convert to metric so we can tell.
15 ft is about 5 m.
Water pressure increases by 10,000 pa per meter (rhogh, rho=1000 kg/m^3, g~10m/s^2), so total pressure is 50 kpa, or 1/2 earth atmospheric pressure.
One side of that hole has ambient pressure of 1 atm. The other side has that plus water pressure totalling 1.5 atm.
A pressure is just an energy density. Multiply by the cross-sectional area of the interface to get the energy gradient across the interface. An energy gradient is a force. We don’t have a measure of the cross-sectional area of the hole, but if we expect a person to fit through let’s call it 1m^2.
50 kpa = 50 kJ/m^3, so total force felt across this opening is 50kN which is the equivalent weight of five metric tons.
Size of the hole absolutely matters. If it’s only the size of a fist (10cm x 10cm) then instead of 5 metric tons it’s only 50 kg of equivalent weight, or about the weight of a person and easily survivable.
This is very interesting. I like unit conversions.
What I did was just take 21-14 psi, and then converted that to bar or atm. I got a number close to ½.
I was like, half an atm? Can’t be that bad? I can handle 1 full mf atm literally all mf day mf.
But I guess that’s different somehow? I just don’t understand how yet. If anyone would care to go into it with me… 🙏
Remember a vacuum does not have suction it’s the air that presses things under vacuum together. One atm is actually quite a lot but we can withstand that as it’s pressing at us from all sides including inside.
See this example of how strong 1 atm can be
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