Would You Really Pop Like a Balloon in a Vacuum?

If a person were suddenly placed in a vacuum, e.g.,
thrown out of a spaceship without a protective/pressure-ized
suit -- a la science fiction movies, would they really pop
like a balloon, or is this an exaggeration? What would really
happen, volumetrically speaking, to the human body?

Thanks
--
Christopher J. Wood

No, you wouldn't explode, "Outland" and "Total Recall" notwithstanding. The
human body isn't sealed with an impermeable skin, like a balloon. Probably
nothing much would happen volumetrically (if you are imagining body parts
swelling up like blowfish).

RM

"Chris Wood" wrote in message
...
If a person were suddenly placed in a vacuum, e.g.,
thrown out of a spaceship without a protective/pressure-ized
suit -- a la science fiction movies, would they really pop
like a balloon, or is this an exaggeration? What would really
happen, volumetrically speaking, to the human body?

Thanks
--
Christopher J. Wood

Surprizingly little would happen, initially. See-
http://space.about.com/cs/basics/a/bodyvacuum1.htm and
http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/as...rs/970603.html
oc

A much better sci-fi representation is the scene in "2001: A Space Odyssey"
where Dave has to forceably re-enter the ship, crossing a large
depressurized area without spacesuit, after HAL has refused to open the pod
bay doors. Arthur C. Clarke is reported to have taken special care in
researching the scenerio and getting it right.



"Ron Miller" wrote in message
...
No, you wouldn't explode, "Outland" and "Total Recall" notwithstanding.
The
human body isn't sealed with an impermeable skin, like a balloon. Probably
nothing much would happen volumetrically (if you are imagining body parts
swelling up like blowfish).

RM

"Chris Wood" wrote in message
...
If a person were suddenly placed in a vacuum, e.g.,
thrown out of a spaceship without a protective/pressure-ized
suit -- a la science fiction movies, would they really pop
like a balloon, or is this an exaggeration? What would really
happen, volumetrically speaking, to the human body?

Thanks
--
Christopher J. Wood

"Bill Sheppard" wrote in message
...
http://space.about.com/cs/basics/a/bodyvacuum1.htm and
In the real life examples the persons exposed had most likely been breathing
pure oxygen at a partial pressure of around 0.2 bar. This is common practice
during eva, the O2 pp is perfectly adequate and means that the spacesuit
does not have to cope with full 1 bar pressure of an 80:20 N2:O2 mix.

A second advantage is that the astronauts blood becomes purged of N2 when
breathing pure O2 and so the physical effects of a sudden decompression will
be somewhat mitigated. Most O2 is carried around in the blood strongly
attached to haemoglobin, there is little O2 in solution and so few bubbles
will form.

However, a person who has been breathing air at 1 bar will have a
considerable quantity of dissolved N2 in various tissues and this will come
out of solution and form bubbles. The first bubbles will appear in the blood
and give rise to thrombolytic decompression sickness with symptoms that may
be similar to a stroke, depending on where the bubbles coalesce. Other
bubbles will appear in fatty/oily tissues such as the spinal cord, brain
tissue and retina giving rise to paralysis, blindness and other neurological
problems. The damage will be permanent unless the patient is very quickly
transferred to a hyperbaric recompression chamber.

Sally (Occasional SCUBA diver who has had training sessions in a hyperbaric
chamber)

"Bill Nunnelee" wrote in
link.net:

A much better sci-fi representation is the scene in "2001: A Space
Odyssey" where Dave has to forceably re-enter the ship, crossing a
large depressurized area without spacesuit, after HAL has refused to
open the pod bay doors. Arthur C. Clarke is reported to have taken
special care in researching the scenerio and getting it right.

He wrote a similar scene much earlier in his career in _Earthlight_.

--
Steve Gray

Hi Sally and oc Being an old scuba diver. Had to make my own rubber
suit(before US divers co. made them.) Well the human body has air
pockets.The one that hurts the most is your air pocket in your inner
ear. If you can't get the air into that area(equalize the water presure)
you will not go down more than 10 feet. Now taking the air pressure away
very fast could blow your ear drums out The aqua lung is made to
always give you air pressure that matches the water pressure.(no problem
there) How your blood would react with no pressure I think it might
like oc said not boil if it had no gas in it. Water boils when
heat drives the air out of it. Does the body have distilled blood? Well
the human body has air pressure of over 14 lb psi and that's a lot of
pressure. I would rather go down under water 250ft than go into the no
pressure of the vacuum of space. Bert

[posted and mailed]

(G=EMC^2 Glazier) wrote in news:17112-3FB0325B-
:

Hi Sally and oc Being an old scuba diver. Had to make my own rubber
suit(before US divers co. made them.) Well the human body has air
pockets.The one that hurts the most is your air pocket in your inner
ear. If you can't get the air into that area(equalize the water presure)
you will not go down more than 10 feet. Now taking the air pressure away
very fast could blow your ear drums out The aqua lung is made to
always give you air pressure that matches the water pressure.(no problem
there) How your blood would react with no pressure I think it might
like oc said not boil if it had no gas in it. Water boils when
heat drives the air out of it.

Are you sure Bert? I thought the bubbles that vigorousy make their way out
through the surface were expanding pockets of vapourized H20, ie steam.

Martin Lewicki

Bert wrote,

How your blood would react with no
pressure I think it might like oc said not
boil if it had no gas in it.

Never made that statement, Bert. There's a major difference between gas
coming out of solution and boiling. When you pop a Bud and it foams,
that's CO2 gas coming out of solution. Nothing's boiling. Boiling is a
phase change of the liquid itself to gas (f'rinstance, you can boil pure
distilled water even though there's no gas in it).

=A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 Water boils when heat drives the air out of it.

Sorry Bert, but nyet, nein, non.

Does the body have distilled blood?

Don't need no distilled blood. If it has gas in solution, reducing
pressure can let the gas out of solution, just like popping a beer (or
giving you the bends). But it's not boiling.

In those instances where people felt saliva on their tongues boiling, it
was because at body temperature water boils in vacuum. oc

"It is described abstractly in mathematical language, _but not
explained_."

Exactly right, Bill.

Excellent post.

-- Stinger
"Bill Sheppard" wrote in message
...
Bert wrote,

How your blood would react with no
pressure I think it might like oc said not
boil if it had no gas in it.

Never made that statement, Bert. There's a major difference between gas
coming out of solution and boiling. When you pop a Bud and it foams,
that's CO2 gas coming out of solution. Nothing's boiling. Boiling is a
phase change of the liquid itself to gas (f'rinstance, you can boil pure
distilled water even though there's no gas in it).

Water boils when heat drives the air out of it.

Sorry Bert, but nyet, nein, non.

Does the body have distilled blood?

Don't need no distilled blood. If it has gas in solution, reducing
pressure can let the gas out of solution, just like popping a beer (or
giving you the bends). But it's not boiling.

In those instances where people felt saliva on their tongues boiling, it
was because at body temperature water boils in vacuum. oc

"It is described abstractly in mathematical language, _but not
explained_."