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Les Lord
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How much air pressure could a human survive in?
vanesch said:There have been experiments with breathing liquids and then you can go to very high pressures indeed.
GrizzlyBat said:So can people breath in liquid oxygen? I mean apart from the fact it is cold, would it be possible?
You have not shared this with us. Still have signed editions?Danger said:I incorporated that into my SF novel over 25 years ago.
It works for rats because they can't choke (or vomit). You can't o it so easily in primates unless they are anesthetized because of the gag reflex.Danger said:Now I remember seeing that little rat playing around in the bottom of a tank full of super-oxygenated water. Didn't they at some point have even better results using some sort of fluorocarbon liquid in lieu of water?
DaveC426913 said:You have not shared this with us. Still have signed editions?
mgb_phys said:It works for rats because they can't choke (or vomit). You can't o it so easily in primates unless they are anesthetized because of the gag reflex.
The main practical problem for larger animals is that the carrier liquid contains such low concentrations of oxygen that you have to flow a huge volume through the lungs to get enough oxygen transferred - I forget the figures but it's something like a fire hose.
Danger said:Man, I'd forgotten about that. I haven't heard anything about it since the early 70's. Now I remember seeing that little rat playing around in the bottom of a tank full of super-oxygenated water. Didn't they at some point have even better results using some sort of fluorocarbon liquid in lieu of water?
And there's one technique, which as far as I know is still rated 'Top Secret' by the US government (as if I care), wherein pilots of high-performance aeroplanes saturate their bodies with xenon gas, then have the cockpit filled with the stuff. It supposedly let's one remain functional up to about 30 g's. I incorporated that into my SF novel over 25 years ago.
maverick_starstrider said:Isn't that from the movie "The Abyss"?
Danger said:A: Which part of the quote?
B: I can't say, because I never saw 'The Abyss'.
Will you let anyone read it? I would like to read it.Danger said:I never submitted it for publication. It started as a grade 10 English project, and got out of hand. (Sort of like Greg's computer science project. ) Although it is completed, as in done from beginning to end, it isn't finished. It's over 500 pages, but a large part of that should be excised. I have a couple of problems in that regard. One is that I choose my words very carefully (more than I do here), so it kind of hurts to delete them. The other is that I haven't been able to write a damned thing since I went on the anti-depressants for my ADD almost 10 years ago.
One of the major problems is that it's supposed to be SF, not Sci-Fi or Fantasy. I extrapolated modern technology to something that I foresaw for the future. By the time I finished writing it, some bastards invented my ideas so I had to keep going back and rewriting it to get ahead. To give you an indication of the time-frame, two of the main characters are a 65-year-old Korean war Sabre pilot and a 35-year-old Viet Nam F-4 pilot. Their wives are the other two main characters, who (essential to the plot) were in a USO performance near Phnom Penh.
If I do seek out a publisher, I'm seriously thinking of just adding an introduction page stating that it was written in the 70's and should be read with that in mind.
DaveC426913 said:Will you let anyone read it? I would like to read it.
I read a long time ago that xenon gas was deadly poisonous, at least that is what the San Francisco Chronical science editor wrote, after he toured the Lawrence Livermore Lab nuclear reactor during an open house a while back.Danger said:And there's one technique, which as far as I know is still rated 'Top Secret' by the US government (as if I care), wherein pilots of high-performance aeroplanes saturate their bodies with xenon gas, then have the cockpit filled with the stuff. It supposedly let's one remain functional up to about 30 g's. I incorporated that into my SF novel over 25 years ago.
I'll have to look into that. The guy who told me about it was a US government subcontactor who had a pretty serious inside track. I'll have to check it out. Thanks for the heads-up; if you're correct, there's another serious re-write in my future.Bob S said:I read a long time ago that xenon gas was deadly poisonous
The SFC science editor's comment is misleading.Bob S said:I read a long time ago that xenon gas was deadly poisonous, at least that is what the San Francisco Chronical science editor wrote, after he toured the Lawrence Livermore Lab nuclear reactor during an open house a while back.
(see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_poison)
Xenon gas is a product of nuclear fission, and has an extremely high cross section for absorbing thermal neutrons, and will quench or "poison" the reactivity in a nuclear reactor. The SF Chronical science reporter misunderstood the physicist's comment about xenon poisoning the reactor.Danger said:I'll have to look into that. The guy who told me about it was a US government subcontactor who had a pretty serious inside track. I'll have to check it out. Thanks for the heads-up; if you're correct, there's another serious re-write in my future.
That bit was cut in the UK - can't be cruel to animals.maverick_starstrider said:I know that liquid breathing exist but the image of a rat being placed in the stuff and slowly looking like it is dying and then it starts breathing is from the movie The Abyss.
Not by a long way, TRON was earlier (82) and the first CGI character is reckoned to be the knight in Young Sherlock (85)First movie with CGI btw.
No. That is a task that has no end.Danger said:Let me fix it first.
fawk3s said:i hope I am not too late but oxygen becomes toxic when the air's density consists of somewhere over 60% of O2. if i remember right.
This is what they planned to do with the early Apollo missions. But they found it to be a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_1#Incident"...fawk3s said:so on low pressures you can breath 100% oxygen without any damage?
fawk3s said:so on low pressures you can breath 100% oxygen without any damage? then how much do airplanes use in their tanks, you know, those for the passengers in case of an accident?
Yes. I never knew this until I read that Wiki article just now. The story I've always known was a simplification of the facts - no mention that it was a test, and no mention that they overpressured it.mgb_phys said:The fire on Apollo 1 was caused by an amazingly dumb mistake in a test. The craft was designed to operate at 0.2atm pure oxygen in space, to test the doors on the ground they needed the inside to be 0.2atm higher pressure than outside. They did this by filling it with 1.2atm of pure oxygen...
Danger said:Let me fix it first.
The maximum air pressure that the human body can withstand is around 14.7 pounds per square inch (psi), which is equivalent to the air pressure at sea level. This is because our bodies are adapted to the air pressure at sea level and any significant increase can cause serious health issues.
Yes, a human can survive in low air pressure environments for a short period of time. For example, astronauts can survive in the low air pressure environment of space for a limited time with the help of a spacesuit and oxygen supply. However, prolonged exposure to low air pressure can lead to serious health problems such as decompression sickness.
In high air pressure environments, the body experiences an increase in external pressure. This can cause the body's tissues to compress, which can lead to discomfort and pain. In extreme cases, it can also lead to tissue damage and even death.
Yes, there is a limit to how much air pressure the human body can handle. As mentioned earlier, the maximum air pressure that the body can withstand is around 14.7 psi. Any significant increase in air pressure can cause serious health issues and can be fatal.
During scuba diving, the body is exposed to increasing air pressure as the diver descends deeper into the water. This can cause the air spaces in the body, such as the lungs and ears, to compress. To prevent any damage, divers need to equalize the pressure in their body by clearing their ears and using specialized equipment, such as a regulator, to breathe compressed air.