Vacuum and pressure will it move?

[udtsith]

Hi! I've been experimenting in my kitchen (much to wife's amusement) with vacuum pressure. Basically, I have been trying to understand...if I have a container (2 ltr soda bottle size/type) that is at low pressure (e.g. 1/2 atm) and I put a small hole on one side...will the soda bottle move in the direction in which I put that hole? My hypothesis is that there is a higher pressure on the non-hole side and so it would push the bottle to the lower pressure side. So far my experiments have not shown this to be the case. I am guessing its because the air coming in from the side of the hole still provides a force keeping the soda bottle stationary but...I thought the lower average molecule hits on the lower pressure side would result in some force to move the bottle. In any event I certainly am appreciating the power of the atmosphere as most of my containers get crushed. oh...the container I finally settled on was not a soda bottle but a metal non-crushable cylindrical container Any help is much appreciated by me and my wife!

 

[DrClaude]

You shouldn't think in terms of pressure, as the bottle is a single system and the atmospheric pressure is equal on all sides.

Imagine that the pressure inside the bottle was much higher than atmospheric pressure. What would happen then when there is a hole in the bottle, and why?