Vacuum

A vacuum is a space devoid of matter. The word is derived from

the Latin adjective vacuus for "vacant" or "void". An
approximation to such vacuum is a region with a gaseous pressure
much less than atmospheric pressure.[1] Physicists often discuss
ideal test results that would occur in a perfect vacuum, which they
sometimes simply call "vacuum" or free space, and use the term
partial vacuum to refer to an actual imperfect vacuum as one
might have in a laboratory or in space. In engineering and applied
physics on the other hand, vacuum refers to any space in which the
pressure is considerably lower than atmospheric pressure.[2] The
Latin term in vacuo is used to describe an object that is surrounded Pump to demonstrate vacuum
by a vacuum.

The quality of a partial vacuum refers to how closely it approaches

a perfect vacuum. Other things equal, lower gas pressure means higher-quality vacuum. For example, a
typical vacuum cleaner produces enough suction to reduce air pressure by around 20%.[3] But higher-
quality vacuums are possible. Ultra-high vacuum chambers, common in chemistry, physics, and
engineering, operate below one trillionth (10−12 ) of atmospheric pressure (100 nPa), and can reach around
100 particles/cm3 .[4] Outer space is an even higher-quality vacuum, with the equivalent of just a few
hydrogen atoms per cubic meter on average in intergalactic space.[5]

Vacuum has been a frequent topic of philosophical debate since ancient Greek times, but was not studied
empirically until the 17th century. Evangelista Torricelli produced the first laboratory vacuum in 1643, and
other experimental techniques were developed as a result of his theories of atmospheric pressure. A
Torricellian vacuum is created by filling a tall glass container closed at one end with mercury, and then
inverting it in a bowl to contain the mercury (see below).[6]

Vacuum became a valuable industrial tool in the 20th century with the introduction of incandescent light
bulbs and vacuum tubes, and a wide array of vacuum technologies has since become available. The
development of human spaceflight has raised interest in the impact of vacuum on human health, and on life
forms in general.

Contents
Etymology
Historical understanding
Classical field theories
Gravity
Electromagnetism
Quantum mechanics
Outer space
Measurement
Relative versus absolute measurement
 Measurements relative to 1 atm
Measuring instruments
Uses
Vacuum-driven machines
Outgassing
Pumping and ambient air pressure
Effects on humans and animals
Examples
See also
References
External links A large vacuum chamber

Etymology
The word vacuum comes from Latin 'an empty space, void', noun use of neuter of vacuus, meaning
"empty", related to vacare, meaning "to be empty".

Vacuum is one of the few words in the English language that contains two consecutive letters u.[7]

Historical understanding
Historically, there has been much dispute over whether such a thing as a vacuum can exist. Ancient Greek
philosophers debated the existence of a vacuum, or void, in the context of atomism, which posited void and
atom as the fundamental explanatory elements of physics. Following Plato, even the abstract concept of a
featureless void faced considerable skepticism: it could not be apprehended by the senses, it could not,
itself, provide additional explanatory power beyond the physical volume with which it was commensurate
and, by definition, it was quite literally nothing at all, which cannot rightly be said to exist. Aristotle
believed that no void could occur naturally, because the denser surrounding material continuum would
immediately fill any incipient rarity that might give rise to a void.

In his Physics, book IV, Aristotle offered numerous arguments against the void: for example, that motion
through a medium which offered no impediment could continue ad infinitum, there being no reason that
something would come to rest anywhere in particular. Although Lucretius argued for the existence of
vacuum in the first century BC and Hero of Alexandria tried unsuccessfully to create an artificial vacuum in
the first century AD.[8]

In the medieval Muslim world, the physicist and Islamic scholar Al-Farabi wrote a treatise rejecting the
existence of the vacuum in the 10th century.[9] He concluded that air's volume can expand to fill available
space, and therefore the concept of a perfect vacuum was incoherent.[10] According to Nader El-Bizri, the
physicist Ibn al-Haytham and the Mu'tazili theologians disagreed with Aristotle and Al-Farabi, and they
supported the existence of a void. Using geometry, Ibn al-Haytham mathematically demonstrated that place
(al-makan) is the imagined three-dimensional void between the inner surfaces of a containing body.[11]
According to Ahmad Dallal, Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī also states that "there is no observable evidence that
rules out the possibility of vacuum".[12] The suction pump was described by Arab engineer Al-Jazari in the
13th century, and later appeared in Europe from the 15th century.[13][14]
European scholars such as Roger Bacon, Blasius of Parma and Walter Burley in the 13th and 14th century
focused considerable attention on issues concerning the concept of a vacuum. Eventually following Stoic
physics in this instance, scholars from the 14th century onward increasingly departed from the Aristotelian
perspective in favor of a supernatural void beyond the confines of the cosmos itself, a conclusion widely
acknowledged by the 17th century, which helped to segregate natural and theological concerns.[15]

Almost two thousand years after Plato, René Descartes also proposed a geometrically based alternative
theory of atomism, without the problematic nothing–everything dichotomy of void and atom. Although
Descartes agreed with the contemporary position, that a vacuum does not occur in nature, the success of his
namesake coordinate system and more implicitly, the spatial–corporeal component of his metaphysics
would come to define the philosophically modern notion of empty space as a quantified extension of
volume. By the ancient definition however, directional information and magnitude were conceptually
distinct.

Medieval thought experiments into the idea of a vacuum considered whether a

vacuum was present, if only for an instant, between two flat plates when they were
rapidly separated.[16] There was much discussion of whether the air moved in quickly
enough as the plates were separated, or, as Walter Burley postulated, whether a
'celestial agent' prevented the vacuum arising. The commonly held view that nature
abhorred a vacuum was called horror vacui. There was even speculation that even
God could not create a vacuum if he wanted and the 1277 Paris condemnations of
Bishop Etienne Tempier, which required there to be no restrictions on the powers of
God, led to the conclusion that God could create a vacuum if he so wished.[17] Jean
Buridan reported in the 14th century that teams of ten horses could not pull open
bellows when the port was sealed.[8]

The 17th century saw the first attempts to

quantify measurements of partial vacuum.[18]
Evangelista Torricelli's mercury barometer of
1643 and Blaise Pascal's experiments both
demonstrated a partial vacuum.

In 1654, Otto von Guericke invented the first

vacuum pump[19] and conducted his famous
Magdeburg hemispheres experiment,
Torricelli's
showing that, owing to atmospheric pressure
mercury
outside the hemispheres, teams of horses
barometer
could not separate two hemispheres from
produced one of
which the air had been partially evacuated.
the first
sustained
Robert Boyle improved Guericke's design The Crookes tube, used to discover
and with the help of Robert Hooke further and study cathode rays, was an
vacuums in a
developed vacuum pump technology. evolution of the Geissler tube.
laboratory.
Thereafter, research into the partial vacuum
lapsed until 1850 when August Toepler
invented the Toepler Pump and in 1855 when Heinrich Geissler invented the mercury displacement pump,
achieving a partial vacuum of about 10 Pa (0.1 Torr). A number of electrical properties become observable
at this vacuum level, which renewed interest in further research.

While outer space provides the most rarefied example of a naturally occurring partial vacuum, the heavens
were originally thought to be seamlessly filled by a rigid indestructible material called aether. Borrowing
somewhat from the pneuma of Stoic physics, aether came to be regarded as the rarefied air from which it
took its name, (see Aether (mythology)). Early theories of light posited a ubiquitous terrestrial and celestial
medium through which light propagated. Additionally, the concept informed Isaac Newton's explanations
of both refraction and of radiant heat.[20] 19th century experiments into this luminiferous aether attempted
to detect a minute drag on the Earth's orbit. While the Earth does, in fact, move through a relatively dense
medium in comparison to that of interstellar space, the drag is so minuscule that it could not be detected. In
1912, astronomer Henry Pickering commented: "While the interstellar absorbing medium may be simply
the ether, [it] is characteristic of a gas, and free gaseous molecules are certainly there".[21]

Later, in 1930, Paul Dirac proposed a model of the vacuum as an infinite sea of particles possessing
negative energy, called the Dirac sea. This theory helped refine the predictions of his earlier formulated
Dirac equation, and successfully predicted the existence of the positron, confirmed two years later. Werner
Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, formulated in 1927, predicted a fundamental limit within which
instantaneous position and momentum, or energy and time can be measured. This has far reaching
consequences on the "emptiness" of space between particles. In the late 20th century, so-called virtual
particles that arise spontaneously from empty space were confirmed.

Classical field theories

The strictest criterion to define a vacuum is a region of space and time where all the components of the
stress–energy tensor are zero. This means that this region is devoid of energy and momentum, and by
consequence, it must be empty of particles and other physical fields (such as electromagnetism) that contain
energy and momentum.

Gravity

In general relativity, a vanishing stress–energy tensor implies, through Einstein field equations, the
vanishing of all the components of the Ricci tensor. Vacuum does not mean that the curvature of space-time
is necessarily flat: the gravitational field can still produce curvature in a vacuum in the form of tidal forces
and gravitational waves (technically, these phenomena are the components of the Weyl tensor). The black
hole (with zero electric charge) is an elegant example of a region completely "filled" with vacuum, but still
showing a strong curvature.

Electromagnetism

In classical electromagnetism, the vacuum of free space, or sometimes just free space or perfect vacuum, is
a standard reference medium for electromagnetic effects.[22][23] Some authors refer to this reference
medium as classical vacuum,[22] a terminology intended to separate this concept from QED vacuum or
QCD vacuum, where vacuum fluctuations can produce transient virtual particle densities and a relative
permittivity and relative permeability that are not identically unity.[24][25][26]

In the theory of classical electromagnetism, free space has the following properties:

Electromagnetic radiation travels, when unobstructed, at the speed of light, the defined value
299,792,458 m/s in SI units.[27]
The superposition principle is always exactly true.[28] For example, the electric potential
generated by two charges is the simple addition of the potentials generated by each charge
in isolation. The value of the electric field at any point around these two charges is found by
calculating the vector sum of the two electric fields from each of the charges acting alone.
The permittivity and permeability are exactly the electric constant ε0[29] and magnetic
constant μ0,[30] respectively (in SI units), or exactly 1 (in Gaussian units).
The characteristic impedance (η) equals the impedance of free space Z0 ≈ 376.73 Ω.[31]
The vacuum of classical electromagnetism can be viewed as an idealized electromagnetic medium with the
constitutive relations in SI units:[32]

relating the electric displacement field D to the electric field E and the magnetic field or H-field H to the
magnetic induction or B-field B. Here r is a spatial location and t is time.

Quantum mechanics
In quantum mechanics and quantum field
theory, the vacuum is defined as the state (that
is, the solution to the equations of the theory)
with the lowest possible energy (the ground
state of the Hilbert space). In quantum
electrodynamics this vacuum is referred to as
'QED vacuum' to distinguish it from the
vacuum of quantum chromodynamics,
denoted as QCD vacuum. QED vacuum is a
state with no matter particles (hence the
name), and no photons. As described above, Play media
this state is impossible to achieve A video of an experiment showing vacuum fluctuations (in
experimentally. (Even if every matter particle the red ring) amplified by spontaneous parametric down-
could somehow be removed from a volume, it conversion.
would be impossible to eliminate all the
blackbody photons.) Nonetheless, it provides
a good model for realizable vacuum, and agrees with a number of experimental observations as described
next.

QED vacuum has interesting and complex properties. In QED vacuum, the electric and magnetic fields
have zero average values, but their variances are not zero.[33] As a result, QED vacuum contains vacuum
fluctuations (virtual particles that hop into and out of existence), and a finite energy called vacuum energy.
Vacuum fluctuations are an essential and ubiquitous part of quantum field theory. Some experimentally
verified effects of vacuum fluctuations include spontaneous emission and the Lamb shift.[17] Coulomb's
law and the electric potential in vacuum near an electric charge are modified.[34]

Theoretically, in QCD multiple vacuum states can coexist.[35] The starting and ending of cosmological
inflation is thought to have arisen from transitions between different vacuum states. For theories obtained
by quantization of a classical theory, each stationary point of the energy in the configuration space gives
rise to a single vacuum. String theory is believed to have a huge number of vacua – the so-called string
theory landscape.

Outer space
Outer space has very low density and pressure, and is the closest physical approximation of a perfect
vacuum. But no vacuum is truly perfect, not even in interstellar space, where there are still a few hydrogen
atoms per cubic meter.[5]

Structure of the magnetosphere - is not a perfect vacuum, but a
tenuous plasma awash with charged particles, free elements such
as hydrogen, helium and oxygen, electromagnetic fields.
to use number density to describe these environments, in units of particles per cubic centimetre.
Stars, planets, and moons keep their
atmospheres by gravitational attraction,
and as such, atmospheres have no
clearly delineated boundary: the density
of atmospheric gas simply decreases
with distance from the object. The
Earth's atmospheric pressure drops to
about 32 millipascals (4.6 × 10−6 psi) at
100 kilometres (62 mi) of altitude,[36]
the Kármán line, which is a common
definition of the boundary with outer
space. Beyond this line, isotropic gas
pressure rapidly becomes insignificant
when compared to radiation pressure
from the Sun and the dynamic pressure
of the solar winds, so the definition of
pressure becomes difficult to interpret.
The thermosphere in this range has
large gradients of pressure, temperature
and composition, and varies greatly due
to space weather. Astrophysicists prefer

But although it meets the definition of outer space, the atmospheric density within the first few hundred
kilometers above the Kármán line is still sufficient to produce significant drag on satellites. Most artificial
satellites operate in this region called low Earth orbit and must fire their engines every couple of weeks or a
few times a year (depending on solar activity).[37] The drag here is low enough that it could theoretically be
overcome by radiation pressure on solar sails, a proposed propulsion system for interplanetary travel.[38]
Planets are too massive for their trajectories to be significantly affected by these forces, although their
atmospheres are eroded by the solar winds.

All of the observable universe is filled with large numbers of photons, the so-called cosmic background
radiation, and quite likely a correspondingly large number of neutrinos. The current temperature of this
radiation is about 3 K (−270.15 °C; −454.27 °F).

Measurement
The quality of a vacuum is indicated by the amount of matter remaining in the system, so that a high quality
vacuum is one with very little matter left in it. Vacuum is primarily measured by its absolute pressure, but a
complete characterization requires further parameters, such as temperature and chemical composition. One
of the most important parameters is the mean free path (MFP) of residual gases, which indicates the average
distance that molecules will travel between collisions with each other. As the gas density decreases, the
MFP increases, and when the MFP is longer than the chamber, pump, spacecraft, or other objects present,
the continuum assumptions of fluid mechanics do not apply. This vacuum state is called high vacuum, and
the study of fluid flows in this regime is called particle gas dynamics. The MFP of air at atmospheric
pressure is very short, 70 nm, but at 100 mPa (~1 × 10−3 Torr) the MFP of room temperature air is roughly
100 mm, which is on the order of everyday objects such as vacuum tubes. The Crookes radiometer turns
when the MFP is larger than the size of the vanes.

Vacuum quality is subdivided into ranges according to the technology required to achieve it or measure it.
These ranges do not have universally agreed definitions, but a typical distribution is shown in the following
table.[39][40] As we travel into orbit, outer space and ultimately intergalactic space, the pressure varies by
several orders of magnitude.

Pressure ranges of each quality of vacuum in different units

Vacuum quality Torr Pa Atmosphere

Atmospheric pressure 760 1.013 × 105 1

Low vacuum 760 to 25 1 × 105 to 3 × 103 9.87 × 10−1 to 3 × 10−2

Medium vacuum 25 to 1 × 10−3 3 × 103 to 1 × 10−1 3 × 10−2 to 9.87 × 10−7

High vacuum 1 × 10−3 to 1 × 10−9 1 × 10−1 to 1 × 10−7 9.87 × 10−7 to 9.87 × 10−13

Ultra high vacuum 1 × 10−9 to 1 × 10−12 1 × 10−7 to 1 × 10−10 9.87 × 10−13 to 9.87 × 10−16

Extremely high vacuum < 1 × 10−12 < 1 × 10−10 < 9.87 × 10−16

Outer space 1 × 10−6 to < 1 × 10−17 1 × 10−4 to < 3 × 10−15 9.87 × 10−10 to < 2.96 × 10−20
Perfect vacuum 0 0 0

Atmospheric pressure is variable but standardized at 101.325 kPa (760 Torr).

Low vacuum, also called rough vacuum or coarse vacuum, is vacuum that can be achieved
or measured with rudimentary equipment such as a vacuum cleaner and a liquid column
manometer.
Medium vacuum is vacuum that can be achieved with a single pump, but the pressure is
too low to measure with a liquid or mechanical manometer. It can be measured with a
McLeod gauge, thermal gauge or a capacitive gauge.
High vacuum is vacuum where the MFP of residual gases is longer than the size of the
chamber or of the object under test. High vacuum usually requires multi-stage pumping and
ion gauge measurement. Some texts differentiate between high vacuum and very high
vacuum.
Ultra high vacuum requires baking the chamber to remove trace gases, and other special
procedures. British and German standards define ultra high vacuum as pressures below
10−6 Pa (10−8 Torr).[41][42]
Deep space is generally much more empty than any artificial vacuum. It may or may not
meet the definition of high vacuum above, depending on what region of space and
astronomical bodies are being considered. For example, the MFP of interplanetary space is
smaller than the size of the Solar System, but larger than small planets and moons. As a
result, solar winds exhibit continuum flow on the scale of the Solar System, but must be
considered a bombardment of particles with respect to the Earth and Moon.
Perfect vacuum is an ideal state of no particles at all. It cannot be achieved in a laboratory,
although there may be small volumes which, for a brief moment, happen to have no particles
of matter in them. Even if all particles of matter were removed, there would still be photons
and gravitons, as well as dark energy, virtual particles, and other aspects of the quantum
vacuum.
Hard vacuum and soft vacuum are terms that are defined with a dividing line defined
differently by different sources, such as 1 Torr,[43][44] or 0.1 Torr,[45] the common denominator
being that a hard vacuum is a higher vacuum than a soft one.

Relative versus absolute measurement

Vacuum is measured in units of pressure, typically as a subtraction relative to ambient atmospheric pressure
on Earth. But the amount of relative measurable vacuum varies with local conditions. On the surface of
Venus, where ground level atmospheric pressure is much higher than on Earth, much higher relative
vacuum readings would be possible. On the surface of the moon with almost no atmosphere, it would be
extremely difficult to create a measurable vacuum relative to the local environment.

Similarly, much higher than normal relative vacuum readings are possible deep in the Earth's ocean. A
submarine maintaining an internal pressure of 1 atmosphere submerged to a depth of 10 atmospheres (98
metres; a 9.8 metre column of seawater has the equivalent weight of 1 atm) is effectively a vacuum
chamber keeping out the crushing exterior water pressures, though the 1 atm inside the submarine would
not normally be considered a vacuum.

Therefore, to properly understand the following discussions of vacuum measurement, it is important that the
reader assumes the relative measurements are being done on Earth at sea level, at exactly 1 atmosphere of
ambient atmospheric pressure.

Measurements relative to 1 atm

The SI unit of pressure is the pascal (symbol Pa), but vacuum is often
measured in torrs, named for an Italian physicist Torricelli (1608–1647). A
torr is equal to the displacement of a millimeter of mercury (mmHg) in a
manometer with 1 torr equaling 133.3223684 pascals above absolute zero
pressure. Vacuum is often also measured on the barometric scale or as a
percentage of atmospheric pressure in bars or atmospheres. Low vacuum is
often measured in millimeters of mercury (mmHg) or pascals (Pa) below
standard atmospheric pressure. "Below atmospheric" means that the
absolute pressure is equal to the current atmospheric pressure.

In other words, most low vacuum gauges that read, for example
50.79 Torr. Many inexpensive low vacuum gauges have a margin of error
and may report a vacuum of 0 Torr but in practice this generally requires a
two-stage rotary vane or other medium type of vacuum pump to go much
beyond (lower than) 1 torr. A glass McLeod gauge,
drained of mercury

Measuring instruments

Many devices are used to measure the pressure in a vacuum, depending on what range of vacuum is
needed.[46]

Hydrostatic gauges (such as the mercury column manometer) consist of a vertical column of liquid in a
tube whose ends are exposed to different pressures. The column will rise or fall until its weight is in
equilibrium with the pressure differential between the two ends of the tube. The simplest design is a closed-
end U-shaped tube, one side of which is connected to the region of interest. Any fluid can be used, but
mercury is preferred for its high density and low vapour pressure. Simple hydrostatic gauges can measure
pressures ranging from 1 torr (100 Pa) to above atmospheric. An important variation is the McLeod gauge
which isolates a known volume of vacuum and compresses it to multiply the height variation of the liquid
column. The McLeod gauge can measure vacuums as high as 10−6 torr (0.1 mPa), which is the lowest
direct measurement of pressure that is possible with current technology. Other vacuum gauges can measure
lower pressures, but only indirectly by measurement of other pressure-controlled properties. These indirect
measurements must be calibrated via a direct measurement, most commonly a McLeod gauge.[47]

The kenotometer is a particular type of hydrostatic gauge, typically used in power plants using steam
turbines. The kenotometer measures the vacuum in the steam space of the condenser, that is, the exhaust of
the last stage of the turbine.[48]
Mechanical or elastic gauges depend on a Bourdon tube, diaphragm, or capsule, usually made of metal,
which will change shape in response to the pressure of the region in question. A variation on this idea is the
capacitance manometer, in which the diaphragm makes up a part of a capacitor. A change in pressure
leads to the flexure of the diaphragm, which results in a change in capacitance. These gauges are effective
from 103 torr to 10−4 torr, and beyond.

Thermal conductivity gauges rely on the fact that the ability of a gas to conduct heat decreases with
pressure. In this type of gauge, a wire filament is heated by running current through it. A thermocouple or
Resistance Temperature Detector (RTD) can then be used to measure the temperature of the filament. This
temperature is dependent on the rate at which the filament loses heat to the surrounding gas, and therefore
on the thermal conductivity. A common variant is the Pirani gauge which uses a single platinum filament as
both the heated element and RTD. These gauges are accurate from 10 torr to 10−3 torr, but they are
sensitive to the chemical composition of the gases being measured.

Ionization gauges are used in ultrahigh vacuum. They come in two types: hot cathode and cold cathode. In
the hot cathode version an electrically heated filament produces an electron beam. The electrons travel
through the gauge and ionize gas molecules around them. The resulting ions are collected at a negative
electrode. The current depends on the number of ions, which depends on the pressure in the gauge. Hot
cathode gauges are accurate from 10−3 torr to 10−10 torr. The principle behind cold cathode version is the
same, except that electrons are produced in a discharge created by a high voltage electrical discharge. Cold
cathode gauges are accurate from 10−2 torr to 10−9 torr. Ionization gauge calibration is very sensitive to
construction geometry, chemical composition of gases being measured, corrosion and surface deposits.
Their calibration can be invalidated by activation at atmospheric pressure or low vacuum. The composition
of gases at high vacuums will usually be unpredictable, so a mass spectrometer must be used in conjunction
with the ionization gauge for accurate measurement.[49]

Uses
Vacuum is useful in a variety of processes and devices. Its first widespread
use was in the incandescent light bulb to protect the filament from
chemical degradation. The chemical inertness produced by a vacuum is
also useful for electron beam welding, cold welding, vacuum packing and
vacuum frying. Ultra-high vacuum is used in the study of atomically clean
substrates, as only a very good vacuum preserves atomic-scale clean
surfaces for a reasonably long time (on the order of minutes to days). High
to ultra-high vacuum removes the obstruction of air, allowing particle
beams to deposit or remove materials without contamination. This is the
principle behind chemical vapor deposition, physical vapor deposition, and
dry etching which are essential to the fabrication of semiconductors and
optical coatings, and to surface science. The reduction of convection
provides the thermal insulation of thermos bottles. Deep vacuum lowers
the boiling point of liquids and promotes low temperature outgassing
which is used in freeze drying, adhesive preparation, distillation,
metallurgy, and process purging. The electrical properties of vacuum make Light bulbs contain a partial
electron microscopes and vacuum tubes possible, including cathode ray vacuum, usually backfilled
tubes. Vacuum interrupters are used in electrical switchgear. Vacuum arc with argon, which protects
processes are industrially important for production of certain grades of steel the tungsten filament
or high purity materials. The elimination of air friction is useful for
flywheel energy storage and ultracentrifuges.

Vacuum-driven machines
 Vacuums are commonly used to produce suction, which has an even wider
variety of applications. The Newcomen steam engine used vacuum instead
of pressure to drive a piston. In the 19th century, vacuum was used for
traction on Isambard Kingdom Brunel's experimental atmospheric railway.
Vacuum brakes were once widely used on trains in the UK but, except on
heritage railways, they have been replaced by air brakes.

Manifold vacuum can be used to drive accessories on automobiles. The

best known application is the vacuum servo, used to provide power
assistance for the brakes. Obsolete applications include vacuum-driven
windscreen wipers and Autovac fuel pumps. Some aircraft instruments
(Attitude Indicator (AI) and the Heading Indicator (HI)) are typically
vacuum-powered, as protection against loss of all (electrically powered)
instruments, since early aircraft often did not have electrical systems, and
since there are two readily available sources of vacuum on a moving
aircraft, the engine and an external venturi. Vacuum induction melting uses
This shallow water well electromagnetic induction within a vacuum.
pump reduces atmospheric
air pressure inside the pump Maintaining a vacuum in the condenser is an important aspect of the
chamber. Atmospheric efficient operation of steam turbines. A steam jet ejector or liquid ring
pressure extends down into vacuum pump is used for this purpose. The typical vacuum maintained in
the well, and forces water up the condenser steam space at the exhaust of the turbine (also called
the pipe into the pump to
condenser backpressure) is in the range 5 to 15 kPa (absolute), depending
balance the reduced
on the type of condenser and the ambient conditions.
pressure. Above-ground
pump chambers are only
effective to a depth of
Outgassing
approximately 9 meters due
to the water column weight
Evaporation and sublimation into a vacuum is called outgassing. All
balancing the atmospheric
pressure.
materials, solid or liquid, have a small vapour pressure, and their
outgassing becomes important when the vacuum pressure falls below this
vapour pressure. Outgassing has the same effect as a leak and will limit the
achievable vacuum. Outgassing products may condense on nearby colder surfaces, which can be
troublesome if they obscure optical instruments or react with other materials. This is of great concern to
space missions, where an obscured telescope or solar cell can ruin an expensive mission.

The most prevalent outgassing product in vacuum systems is water absorbed by chamber materials. It can
be reduced by desiccating or baking the chamber, and removing absorbent materials. Outgassed water can
condense in the oil of rotary vane pumps and reduce their net speed drastically if gas ballasting is not used.
High vacuum systems must be clean and free of organic matter to minimize outgassing.

Ultra-high vacuum systems are usually baked, preferably under vacuum, to temporarily raise the vapour
pressure of all outgassing materials and boil them off. Once the bulk of the outgassing materials are boiled
off and evacuated, the system may be cooled to lower vapour pressures and minimize residual outgassing
during actual operation. Some systems are cooled well below room temperature by liquid nitrogen to shut
down residual outgassing and simultaneously cryopump the system.

Pumping and ambient air pressure

Fluids cannot generally be pulled, so a vacuum cannot be created by suction. Suction can spread and dilute
a vacuum by letting a higher pressure push fluids into it, but the vacuum has to be created first before
suction can occur. The easiest way to create an artificial vacuum is to expand the volume of a container. For
 example, the diaphragm muscle expands the chest cavity, which causes the
volume of the lungs to increase. This expansion reduces the pressure and
creates a partial vacuum, which is soon filled by air pushed in by
atmospheric pressure.

To continue evacuating a chamber indefinitely without requiring infinite

growth, a compartment of the vacuum can be repeatedly closed off,
exhausted, and expanded again. This is the principle behind positive
displacement pumps, like the manual water pump for example. Inside the
pump, a mechanism expands a small sealed cavity to create a vacuum.
Because of the pressure differential, some fluid from the chamber (or the
well, in our example) is pushed into the pump's small cavity. The pump's
cavity is then sealed from the chamber, opened to the atmosphere, and
squeezed back to a minute size.

The above explanation is merely a simple

Deep wells have the pump
introduction to vacuum pumping, and is
chamber down in the well
not representative of the entire range of
close to the water surface,
or in the water. A "sucker
pumps in use. Many variations of the
rod" extends from the
positive displacement pump have been
handle down the center of developed, and many other pump designs
rely on fundamentally different principles.
the pipe deep into the well to
operate the plunger. The Momentum transfer pumps, which bear
pump handle acts as a some similarities to dynamic pumps used
heavy counterweight against at higher pressures, can achieve much
both the sucker rod weight higher quality vacuums than positive
and the weight of the water displacement pumps. Entrapment pumps
column standing on the can capture gases in a solid or absorbed
upper plunger up to ground state, often with no moving parts, no seals A cutaway view of a
level. and no vibration. None of these pumps are turbomolecular pump, a
universal; each type has important momentum transfer pump
performance limitations. They all share a used to achieve high
difficulty in pumping low molecular weight gases, especially hydrogen, vacuum
helium, and neon.

The lowest pressure that can be attained in a system is also dependent on many things other than the nature
of the pumps. Multiple pumps may be connected in series, called stages, to achieve higher vacuums. The
choice of seals, chamber geometry, materials, and pump-down procedures will all have an impact.
Collectively, these are called vacuum technique. And sometimes, the final pressure is not the only relevant
characteristic. Pumping systems differ in oil contamination, vibration, preferential pumping of certain gases,
pump-down speeds, intermittent duty cycle, reliability, or tolerance to high leakage rates.

In ultra high vacuum systems, some very "odd" leakage paths and outgassing sources must be considered.
The water absorption of aluminium and palladium becomes an unacceptable source of outgassing, and even
the adsorptivity of hard metals such as stainless steel or titanium must be considered. Some oils and greases
will boil off in extreme vacuums. The permeability of the metallic chamber walls may have to be
considered, and the grain direction of the metallic flanges should be parallel to the flange face.

The lowest pressures currently achievable in laboratory are about 1 × 10−13 torrs (13 pPa).[50] However,
pressures as low as 5 × 10−17 torrs (6.7 fPa) have been indirectly measured in a 4 K (−269.15 °C;
−452.47 °F) cryogenic vacuum system.[4] This corresponds to ≈100 particles/cm3 .
Effects on humans and animals
Humans and animals exposed to vacuum will lose consciousness
after a few seconds and die of hypoxia within minutes, but the
symptoms are not nearly as graphic as commonly depicted in
media and popular culture. The reduction in pressure lowers the
temperature at which blood and other body fluids boil, but the
elastic pressure of blood vessels ensures that this boiling point
remains above the internal body temperature of 37 °C.[51]
Although the blood will not boil, the formation of gas bubbles in
bodily fluids at reduced pressures, known as ebullism, is still a
concern. The gas may bloat the body to twice its normal size and This painting, An Experiment on a
slow circulation, but tissues are elastic and porous enough to Bird in the Air Pump by Joseph
prevent rupture.[52] Swelling and ebullism can be restrained by Wright of Derby, 1768, depicts an
experiment performed by Robert
containment in a flight suit. Shuttle astronauts wore a fitted elastic
Boyle in 1660.
garment called the Crew Altitude Protection Suit (CAPS) which
prevents ebullism at pressures as low as 2 kPa (15 Torr).[53] Rapid
boiling will cool the skin and create frost, particularly in the mouth,
but this is not a significant hazard.

Animal experiments show that rapid and complete recovery is normal for exposures shorter than 90
seconds, while longer full-body exposures are fatal and resuscitation has never been successful.[54] A study
by NASA on eight chimpanzees found all of them survived two and a half minute exposures to
vacuum.[55] There is only a limited amount of data available from human accidents, but it is consistent with
animal data. Limbs may be exposed for much longer if breathing is not impaired.[56] Robert Boyle was the
first to show in 1660 that vacuum is lethal to small animals.

An experiment indicates that plants are able to survive in a low pressure environment (1.5 kPa) for about 30
minutes.[57][58]

Cold or oxygen-rich atmospheres can sustain life at pressures much lower than atmospheric, as long as the
density of oxygen is similar to that of standard sea-level atmosphere. The colder air temperatures found at
altitudes of up to 3 km generally compensate for the lower pressures there.[56] Above this altitude, oxygen
enrichment is necessary to prevent altitude sickness in humans that did not undergo prior acclimatization,
and spacesuits are necessary to prevent ebullism above 19 km.[56] Most spacesuits use only 20 kPa
(150 Torr) of pure oxygen. This pressure is high enough to prevent ebullism, but decompression sickness
and gas embolisms can still occur if decompression rates are not managed.

Rapid decompression can be much more dangerous than vacuum exposure itself. Even if the victim does
not hold his or her breath, venting through the windpipe may be too slow to prevent the fatal rupture of the
delicate alveoli of the lungs.[56] Eardrums and sinuses may be ruptured by rapid decompression, soft tissues
may bruise and seep blood, and the stress of shock will accelerate oxygen consumption leading to
hypoxia.[59] Injuries caused by rapid decompression are called barotrauma. A pressure drop of 13 kPa
(100 Torr), which produces no symptoms if it is gradual, may be fatal if it occurs suddenly.[56]

Some extremophile microorganisms, such as tardigrades, can survive vacuum conditions for periods of
days or weeks.[60]

Examples
 Pressure (Pa or Mean free Molecules
Pressure (Torr, atm)
kPa) path per cm3
Standard atmosphere, for
101.325 kPa 760 torrs (1.00 atm) 66 nm 2.5 × 1019[61]
comparison
approx. 87 to 95
Intense hurricane 650 to 710
kPa
approximately 80
Vacuum cleaner 600 70 nm 1019
kPa
Steam turbine exhaust
(Condenser 9 kPa
backpressure)
approximately
liquid ring vacuum pump 24 torrs (0.032 atm) 1.75 μm 1018
3.2 kPa
1.155 kPa to
8.66 to 0.23 torrs (0.01139 to
Mars atmosphere 0.03 kPa (mean
0.00030 atm)
0.6 kPa)
100 μm to
freeze drying 100 to 10 1 to 0.1 1016 to 1015
1 mm
0.1 to 0.01 torrs (0.000132 to 1 mm to
Incandescent light bulb 10 to 1 1015 to 1014
1.3 × 10−5 atm) 1 cm

1 × 10−2 to 1 × 10−4 torrs

[1] 1 cm to
Thermos bottle 1 to 0.01 (1.316 × 10−5 to 1m 1014 to 1012
1.3 × 10−7 atm)
1 cm to
Earth thermosphere 1 Pa to 1 × 10−7 10−2 to 10−9 1014 to 107
100 km
1 to
Vacuum tube 1 × 10−5 to 1 × 10−8 10−7 to 10−10 109 to 106
1,000 km
Cryopumped MBE 100 to
1 × 10−7 to 1 × 10−9 10−9 to 10−11 107 to 105
chamber 10,000 km
approximately
Pressure on the Moon 10−11 10,000 km 4 × 105[62]
1 × 10−9

Interplanetary space 11[1]

Interstellar space 1[63]

Intergalactic space 10−6[1]

See also
Decay of the vacuum (Pair production)
Engine vacuum
False vacuum
Helium mass spectrometer – technical instrumentation to detect a vacuum leak
Joining materials
Pneumatic tube – transport system using vacuum or pressure to move containers in tubes
Rarefaction – reduction of a medium's density
Suction – creation of a partial vacuum
Vacuum angle
Vacuum cementing – natural process of solidifying homogeneous "dust" in vacuum
 Vacuum column – controlling loose magnetic tape in early computer data recording tape
drives
Vacuum deposition – process of depositing atoms and molecules in a sub-atmospheric
pressure environment
Vacuum engineering
Vacuum flange – joining of vacuum systems

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Henning Genz (2001). Nothingness: The Science Of Empty Space (https://books.google.co

m/books?id=TGm2ddkL4qkC). Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-7382-0610-3.
Luciano Boi (2011). The Quantum Vacuum: A Scientific and Philosophical Concept, from
Electrodynamics to String Theory and the Geometry of the Microscopic World (https://books.
google.com/books?id=rAEVOLae_FoC). Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-1-
4214-0247-5.

External links
Leybold – Fundamentals of Vacuum Technology (PDF) (https://www.leybold.com/en/downlo
ads/download-documents/brochures/)
VIDEO on the nature of vacuum (http://spacegeek.org/ep9_QT.shtml) by Canadian
astrophysicist Doctor P
 The Foundations of Vacuum Coating Technology (https://web.archive.org/web/20080216082
832/http://www.svc.org/H/H_HistoryArticle.html)
American Vacuum Society (http://www.avs.org/)
Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology A (http://scitation.aip.org/jvsta/)
Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology B (http://scitation.aip.org/jvstb/)
FAQ on explosive decompression and vacuum exposure (http://www.sff.net/people/Geoffrey.
Landis/vacuum.html).
Discussion of the effects on humans of exposure to hard vacuum (http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.g
ov/docs/ask_astro/answers/970603.html).
Roberts, Mark D. (2000). "Vacuum Energy". High Energy Physics – Theory: hep–
th/0012062. arXiv:hep-th/0012062 (https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0012062).
Bibcode:2000hep.th...12062R (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2000hep.th...12062R).
Vacuum, Production of Space (http://void.mit.edu/~4.396/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page)
"Much Ado About Nothing" by Professor John D. Barrow, Gresham College (https://web.arch
ive.org/web/20070930185128/http://www.gresham.ac.uk/event.asp?PageId=4&EventId=25
8)
Free pdf copy of The Structured Vacuum – thinking about nothing (http://www.physics.arizon
a.edu/~rafelski/Books/StructVacuumE.pdf) by Johann Rafelski and Berndt Muller (1985)
ISBN 3-87144-889-3.

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