×

We use cookies to help make LingQ better. By visiting the site, you agree to our cookie policy.


image

It`s Okay To Be Smart, Why Doesn’t the Atmosphere Crush Us?

Why Doesn't the Atmosphere Crush Us?

Hey smart people, Joe here. Horror vacui - “Nature despises a vacuum”. It's a term maybe

you've heard in art, the need to fill all space with detail. But it's an idea that

goes all the way back to the science of Aristotle, the smartest guy alive in the 4th century

BC.

Aristotle believed the universe was full of things, no matter how small you tried to cut

it up, so there could be no place where there wasn't any-thing. The idea of a vacuum,

a space full of nothing, was impossible. Ok then, Mr. Aristotle, how do you explain this?!

OPEN BUMPER

For the next two thousand years, everybody pretty much agreed with Aristotle: vacuums,

voids, and empty spaces couldn't exist. That included the Catholic church, which was

bad news for a guy named Galileo.

In 1634, Galileo had just been brought before the Inquisition for the crime of believing

the Earth wasn't the center of the universe, which was another of Aristotle's bright

ideas. In exchange for keeping his head, he'd promised to retire his telescope, but under

house arrest, he published one final book that basically jump-started physics as we

know it today. Hidden in that book is an experiment that changed the way we look at something

we can't really see: air. Galileo took a glass bottle, and into that

bottle he forced more air. He put it on a scale, opened a valve, letting the compressed

air escape, and the bottle was suddenly lighter. He proved that air weighs something, and if

you took enough away, you'd be left with nothing–a vacuum.

Thing is, everyone was so scared of the church, Galileo had to smuggle his book all the way

to the Netherlands to get it published. But his book eventually made it into the hands

of some curious young scientists, and good thing too, because Galileo had gotten something

very wrong.

One of those young scientists was named Evangelista Torricelli, who was… the owner of some amazing

facial hair. Nice, dude. Torricelli had thought a lot about what drew liquid up in pipes and

straws. What forces the liquid up? Does our mouth

create a vacuum that pulls it up? Galileo believed vacuums and empty spaces

were basically magical, full of a strange power to attract liquids. But Torricelli thought

that idea… really sucked. Thanks to Galileo, Torricelli knew air weighed

something. Maybe it was heavy enough to push liquid around. And this is how he tested that

idea:

He filled a glass tube with mercury, closed at one end, and he submerged the open end

in a pool of mercury. The mercury level in the tube dropped, but it didn't empty all

the way.

Torricelli added a second mercury-filled tube–only this one had a large glass globe on its closed

end. If Galileo was right, and empty space had the power to pull on liquid, the tube

with more empty space should pull its mercury level higher. But the mercury ended up at

exactly the same level in both tubes. No matter how much vacuum was in the tube, the force

holding up the mercury was the same. Vacuums don't suck. Air pushes!

A bubble of air as big as the tip of my little finger contains more than a billion billion

molecules, and every one of them is zipping around and colliding with others a billion

times a second.

This atomic pinball is why the air in a tire can hold up an entire car, and it's why air doesn't just push down, it pushes in every direction.

When we expand our mouths to drink from a straw, the atmosphere pushes the liquid up

into our mouth! When we expand our diaphragms to breathe, we aren't sucking air in, the

atmosphere is falling into our lungs! When you turn on the vacuum cleaner, you aren't

sucking anything, the atmosphere is pushing dirt out of your house. I mean, once you know

this, you really can never look at the world the same way again. Whoa.

Torricelli never published his results about vacuums and air pressure, because he was afraid

of that whole Inquisition thing. But he did write it in a letter to a friend, who told

a few more friends, and thanks to that secret science underground, a few curious folks across

Europe began to ask just how strong the invisible stuff around us really is…

In 1657, the mayor of Magdeburg, Germany, Otto von Guericke, had figured out how pump

air out of two tight-fitting half-domes, forming a sealed globe with a vacuum inside. The weight

of air is so powerful, it allegedly took 32 horses to rip the hemispheres apart!

Not only does air weigh something… it weighs a very great deal indeed. Enough to overpower

even someone as buff as me :) Ready?

Ready!

The mass of all the air in this room is approximately 500 kg. What's crazy is it's pushing on

me with enough force, that even though the vacuum hose only lowers the pressure inside

the bag by about 10%, I'm basically immobilized.

This seems to defy common sense, because air just doesn't seem that heavy. I mean, if

we live at the bottom of an ocean of air, how can we move through it without even noticing

it? If air is pressing on us that hard all the time, why don't our bodies get crushed?

Because as hard as the atmosphere pushes down on us, we're pushing right back! Our bones,

our skin are all incredibly strong! Any open spaces like our lungs are being pushed out

by air so they don't collapse. And our cells are filled with liquid which has its own pressure

pushing back on the atmosphere!In fact, without this ocean of air, we'd look as ugly as

the deep-sea blobfish looks outside of its ocean. They're surprisingly handsome in

their native pressure.

So next time life gets you down, if it ever just feels like too much, just take a second

to remember about how much pressure you've put up with every day of your life without

even realizing it. You're stronger than you think.

Stay curious.

Why Doesn't the Atmosphere Crush Us? Warum erdrückt uns die Atmosphäre nicht? ¿Por qué no nos aplasta la atmósfera? Perché l'atmosfera non ci schiaccia? Waarom verplettert de atmosfeer ons niet? Porque é que a atmosfera não nos esmaga? Почему атмосфера не раздавит нас? Atmosfer Neden Bizi Ezmiyor? 為什麼大氣不會壓垮我們?

Hey smart people, Joe here. Horror vacui - “Nature despises a vacuum”. It's a term maybe Hey slimme mensen, Joe hier. Horror vacui - "De natuur veracht een vacuüm". Het is een term misschien Hey akıllı insanlar, ben Joe. Horror vacui - "Doğa boşluktan nefret eder". Bu bir terim belki de 嘿聰明的人,這裡是喬。 Horror vacui - “大自然鄙視真空”。也許這是一個術語

you've heard in art, the need to fill all space with detail. But it's an idea that

goes all the way back to the science of Aristotle, the smartest guy alive in the 4th century

BC.

Aristotle believed the universe was full of things, no matter how small you tried to cut

it up, so there could be no place where there wasn't any-thing. The idea of a vacuum,

a space full of nothing, was impossible. Ok then, Mr. Aristotle, how do you explain this?!

OPEN BUMPER

For the next two thousand years, everybody pretty much agreed with Aristotle: vacuums, De volgende tweeduizend jaar was iedereen het vrijwel met Aristoteles eens: stofzuigers,

voids, and empty spaces couldn't exist. That included the Catholic church, which was leegtes en lege ruimtes konden niet bestaan. Dat omvatte de katholieke kerk, die was...

bad news for a guy named Galileo.

In 1634, Galileo had just been brought before the Inquisition for the crime of believing

the Earth wasn't the center of the universe, which was another of Aristotle's bright

ideas. In exchange for keeping his head, he'd promised to retire his telescope, but under

house arrest, he published one final book that basically jump-started physics as we

know it today. Hidden in that book is an experiment that changed the way we look at something

we can't really see: air. Galileo took a glass bottle, and into that

bottle he forced more air. He put it on a scale, opened a valve, letting the compressed

air escape, and the bottle was suddenly lighter. He proved that air weighs something, and if

you took enough away, you'd be left with nothing–a vacuum.

Thing is, everyone was so scared of the church, Galileo had to smuggle his book all the way

to the Netherlands to get it published. But his book eventually made it into the hands

of some curious young scientists, and good thing too, because Galileo had gotten something

very wrong.

One of those young scientists was named Evangelista Torricelli, who was… the owner of some amazing Een van die jonge wetenschappers heette Evangelista Torricelli, die... de eigenaar was van een aantal fantastische...

facial hair. Nice, dude. Torricelli had thought a lot about what drew liquid up in pipes and gezichtshaar. Leuk, kerel. Torricelli had veel nagedacht over wat vloeistof in leidingen opzuigde en...

straws. What forces the liquid up? Does our mouth

create a vacuum that pulls it up? Galileo believed vacuums and empty spaces een vacuüm creëren dat het omhoog trekt? Galileo geloofde in stofzuigers en lege ruimtes

were basically magical, full of a strange power to attract liquids. But Torricelli thought

that idea… really sucked. Thanks to Galileo, Torricelli knew air weighed

something. Maybe it was heavy enough to push liquid around. And this is how he tested that

idea:

He filled a glass tube with mercury, closed at one end, and he submerged the open end

in a pool of mercury. The mercury level in the tube dropped, but it didn't empty all

the way.

Torricelli added a second mercury-filled tube–only this one had a large glass globe on its closed

end. If Galileo was right, and empty space had the power to pull on liquid, the tube

with more empty space should pull its mercury level higher. But the mercury ended up at

exactly the same level in both tubes. No matter how much vacuum was in the tube, the force

holding up the mercury was the same. Vacuums don't suck. Air pushes!

A bubble of air as big as the tip of my little finger contains more than a billion billion

molecules, and every one of them is zipping around and colliding with others a billion

times a second.

This atomic pinball is why the air in a tire can hold up an entire car, and it's why air doesn't just push down, it pushes in every direction.

When we expand our mouths to drink from a straw, the atmosphere pushes the liquid up

into our mouth! When we expand our diaphragms to breathe, we aren't sucking air in, the

atmosphere is falling into our lungs! When you turn on the vacuum cleaner, you aren't

sucking anything, the atmosphere is pushing dirt out of your house. I mean, once you know

this, you really can never look at the world the same way again. Whoa.

Torricelli never published his results about vacuums and air pressure, because he was afraid

of that whole Inquisition thing. But he did write it in a letter to a friend, who told

a few more friends, and thanks to that secret science underground, a few curious folks across

Europe began to ask just how strong the invisible stuff around us really is…

In 1657, the mayor of Magdeburg, Germany, Otto von Guericke, had figured out how pump

air out of two tight-fitting half-domes, forming a sealed globe with a vacuum inside. The weight

of air is so powerful, it allegedly took 32 horses to rip the hemispheres apart! ||||||||||||hemispheres|

Not only does air weigh something… it weighs a very great deal indeed. Enough to overpower Повітря не просто щось важить... воно важить дуже багато. Достатньо, щоб пересилити

even someone as buff as me :) Ready?

Ready!

The mass of all the air in this room is approximately 500 kg. What's crazy is it's pushing on

me with enough force, that even though the vacuum hose only lowers the pressure inside мене з такою силою, що навіть якщо вакуумний шланг лише знижує тиск всередині

the bag by about 10%, I'm basically immobilized.

This seems to defy common sense, because air just doesn't seem that heavy. I mean, if

we live at the bottom of an ocean of air, how can we move through it without even noticing

it? If air is pressing on us that hard all the time, why don't our bodies get crushed?

Because as hard as the atmosphere pushes down on us, we're pushing right back! Our bones,

our skin are all incredibly strong! Any open spaces like our lungs are being pushed out

by air so they don't collapse. And our cells are filled with liquid which has its own pressure

pushing back on the atmosphere!In fact, without this ocean of air, we'd look as ugly as

the deep-sea blobfish looks outside of its ocean. They're surprisingly handsome in

their native pressure.

So next time life gets you down, if it ever just feels like too much, just take a second

to remember about how much pressure you've put up with every day of your life without

even realizing it. You're stronger than you think.

Stay curious.