- #1
pallidin
- 2,209
- 2
I remember thinking when I was much younger what might happen if I took a pencil, dipped it in rubber, let it dry, then snapped the pencil in half and pulled the ends apart.
My thoughts were that a vacuum is created at the point(s) of break when pulled, with the rubber surrounding that immediate area pressing inwards due to atmospheric pressure.
But a lot of debris at the snap point within the "partial vacuum"
Thinking later on, I wondered what would happen if some other suitable material besides a pencil might be useful. Such as a crystal rod or such that would fracture relatively cleanly. Good thought, but still debris.
Then I thought about a metallic conductive rod, similarly coated in a rubber-type compound, bent enough to fracture. Pulled apart, a partial vacuum as before is created. But I then apply an electrical field, such to where one of the rod halves is positive, the other negative.
Could it be, under those circumstances, that any microscopic metallic dust created during fracture is now charged and "sticks" to the positive side, creating a near perfect vacuum?
My thoughts were that a vacuum is created at the point(s) of break when pulled, with the rubber surrounding that immediate area pressing inwards due to atmospheric pressure.
But a lot of debris at the snap point within the "partial vacuum"
Thinking later on, I wondered what would happen if some other suitable material besides a pencil might be useful. Such as a crystal rod or such that would fracture relatively cleanly. Good thought, but still debris.
Then I thought about a metallic conductive rod, similarly coated in a rubber-type compound, bent enough to fracture. Pulled apart, a partial vacuum as before is created. But I then apply an electrical field, such to where one of the rod halves is positive, the other negative.
Could it be, under those circumstances, that any microscopic metallic dust created during fracture is now charged and "sticks" to the positive side, creating a near perfect vacuum?