this post was submitted on 01 Feb 2025
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Explain Like I'm Five
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Not sure if you are trolling, but referring to the vacuum of space is more referring to the lack of air pressure, not an airflow like in a vacuum cleaner. Gas is trapped in the gravity of Earth.
There is no up or down, only areas of more or less gravity. Moon and Mars have less gravity, so they have no atmosphere. Jupiter and Uranus have much more gravity and are mostly atmospheric gasses.
On Earth you can confirm these facts!
Swim to the bottom of a pool and feel the air pressure. Drivers cannot ascend or descent too fast because rapid changes of pressure are destructive. This is why it is dangerous to build your own submarine.
Get the ingredients for bread with yeast and make it in a low altitude location. Note how the bread rises during proofing and how long it takes to cook. Repeat the same process at a higher altitude location, several KM up. The bread should rise much more during proofing if you used the exact same ingredients and process. The bread will not be as well done.
Experience high altitude cities! The air further away from Earth is more thin.
The air is more thin because air compresses. Water does not, so water at 5km deep is just as thick as water at the surface. As you have more air and/or water above you, the pressure still increases due to gravity.
Once you get far enough away from Earth, the pressure drops to practically zero. This is because there is not enough gas surrounding you.
That's part of it, sure, but they also don't have a magnetosphere, which blocks the solar radiation from blasting away the atmosphere.
Mars used to have a thicker atmosphere, but the lack of a magnetosphere meant it eventually blew away.
Yes, I forgot about that fact
Yea that makes sense. So the reason plastic bottle squishes when you forcefuly pull air from it, is not because vacum sucks bottle walls from the inside, but because suraunding air is pushing it from the outside. Tnx for answer!