Vacuum

A vacuum is a place where there is no matter. Sound cannot move in a vacuum. Outer space is not a perfect vacuum, because there is a very small number of particles there.

Industrial vacuums

Vacuum is needed for some kinds of industrial production. Vacuum pumps are used to pump air out of the vacuum chamber. In the real world it is not possible to create 100% vacuum, but some vacuum pumps are able to create 99.9999% vacuum. This is called "hard vacuum". Most industrial purposes don't need hard vacuum; 0.001% is good enough.

Industrial vacuums are mainly used in:

  1. Food industry
  2. Electronics industry
  3. Packaging
  4. Manipulation
  5. Coating and degasing

Vacuum chambers are also used in many experiments in laboratories. Some experiments in Physics and Chemistry need hard vacuum.

Other uses

A vacuum cleaner uses a strong vacuum force to suck in dirt, cleaning the floor.

Images

  • Kolbenluftpumpe hg

    Pump to demonstrate vacuum

  • Apollo Command Service Module in vacuum chamber

    A large vacuum chamber

  • Baro 0

    Torricelli's mercury barometer produced one of the first sustained vacuums in a laboratory.

  • Crookes tube two views

    The Crookes tube, used to discover and study cathode rays, was an evolution of the Geissler tube.

  • McLeod gauge 01

    A glass McLeod gauge, drained of mercury

  • Gluehlampe 01 KMJ

    Light bulbs contain a partial vacuum, usually backfilled with argon, which protects the tungsten filament

  • L-Pumpe2

    This shallow water well pump reduces atmospheric air pressure inside the pump chamber. Atmospheric pressure extends down into the well, and forces water up the pipe into the pump to balance the reduced pressure. Above-ground pump chambers are only effective to a depth of approximately 9 meters due to the water column weight balancing the atmospheric pressure.

  • Hand pump

    Deep wells have the pump chamber down in the well close to the water surface, or in the water. A "sucker rod" extends from the handle down the center of the pipe deep into the well to operate the plunger. The pump handle acts as a heavy counterweight against both the sucker rod weight and the weight of the water column standing on the upper plunger up to ground level.

  • Cut through turbomolecular pump

    A cutaway view of a turbomolecular pump, a momentum transfer pump used to achieve high vacuum

  • An Experiment on a Bird in an Air Pump by Joseph Wright of Derby, 1768

    This painting, An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump by Joseph Wright of Derby, 1768, depicts an experiment performed by Robert Boyle in 1660.


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