EPHY210L: Vacuum Technology Assignment 1

Historical experiment related to the production or use of vacuum or measurement of pressure.

Describe an application of vacuum. Write the physics behind this experiment.

Otto von Guerickes Magdeburg spheres

It was done few years after first demonstration of vacuum by Evangelista Torricelli. It consisted of a pair
of huge copper hemispheres. It showed how powerful air pressure can be.

Thirty horses, divided into two teams of fifteen, were unable to separate the hemispheres until the air
pressure was equalized by opening the valve. He repeated the feat in 1656, this time with sixteen
horses.

The 2 hemispheres were around 50 cm in diameter and Guericke designed them such to demonstrate
the vacuum pump which he invented quite recently. After removing air from the sphere the hose
connected could be removed effectively for demonstration to proceed.

The sphere contained a vacuum when the rims were sealed with grease and other lubricant the air was
forced out, and it could not be torn apart by teams of horses in a famous first public presentation in
1654.

This experiment inspired Robert boyle and Robert hooke to design and build an improved air pump, his
pump was capable of reaching a pressure of about 6 Torr. It in turn resulted into the formulation of
what we today know as boyles laws.

-> magdeberg hemispheres ->prototype fusion reactor

Vaccum also has many modern applications. Like by adopting extremely high vacuum levels, vacuum
science has led to discoveries related to space research, As a result, vacuum pumps are a crucial
component of gravitational wave detection systems. Pressure ranges are required to be as low as 10-09
mbar.

References:-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magdeburg_hemispheres
https://cds.cern.ch/record/455984/files/p281.pdf
https://www.vacuumscienceworld.com/vacuum-applications#space_research_