Re: [GZG] Pressures

You can't inflate a balloon at the bottom of the ocean with air that is
at 
the pressure of the atmosphere at sea level. The balloon won't inflate.

If you inflate the balloon with gas that is slightly higher pressure
than 
the water pressure then the pressure differential will be contained by
the 
balloon's skin.

If you try and take a balloon inflated at the bottom of the ocean with
high 
pressure gas it won't make it to the surface without exploding.

In order to retain the structure of the balloon you would have to adjust
its 
internal pressure to match that of the water pressure as it goes to the 
surface. Most deep diving sea creatures develop similar techniques.

There are some animal forms that look like they might work as
spacecraft. 
Invertebrates like crabs, are pretty complex shaped creatures and have a

hard shell exterior that could serve as a hull design. You could also
use 
ideas borrowed from other hard shelled creatures. They could be hulled
using 
a compound like sea shells. During the life of the ship it could add
more 
shell and so get bigger as it lasts longer.

Just because the technology is organic based doesn't mean its not been 
engineered to contain artificial materials. You would need to be able to

introduce purely artificial compounds to do things that are not found in

nature like FTL travel. Also you need a to introduce hull materials that
can 
withstand the stresses of re-entry and the drives themselves.

Getting viruses to contain non organic materials like silicon and
replicate 
could be a first step to producing heat resistant tiles. If you are 
manipulating the molecules at that level you could use nano machines to 
break bonds and insert new molecules into the strands.

John

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard CJ" <rcj@dircon.co.uk>
To: <gzg-l@lists.csua.berkeley.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2006 7:50 PM
Subject: [GZG] Pressures

> Roger Books wrote -
>
>> The biological that live deep in the ocean don't deal with the
pressure 
>> by
>> maintaining a different pressure outside as inside.	 They are
equalized
>> inside and out.
>
>> You could inflate a balloon at the deepest spot in the ocean and it
would
> be fine.
>> If you inflate the same balloon in space it would pop.
>
> Is it actually that simple?
>
> Presumably, to inflate a balloon at the deepest spot in the ocean
you're
> going to need an awful lot of pressure to exceed the external pressure
to
> stretch the balloon until the elasticity of the balloon prevents
further
> expansion..
>
> Conversely, if you inflate a balloon in space you need a lot less 
> pressure,
> and there must still be some point at which the balloon is strong
enough 
> to
> contain the requisite pressure.
>
> After all, the difference between pressure at sea level and that at
the
> bottom of the oceans is massive, whereas between sea level and space
is 
> one
> atmosphere.
>
> CJ
>
>
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