• Question: Can you ever take all the air out of a room?

    Asked by Charlotte to Joe, Jos, Kate, Lisa, Pierre on 12 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Kate Dobson

      Kate Dobson answered on 12 Nov 2014:

      Creating a vacuum in a room would be difficult as the air would probably leak back in round the windows and doors, but if you made sure it was all sealed, then yes, you could pump all the air out.

    • Photo: Pierre Lasorak

      Pierre Lasorak answered on 12 Nov 2014:

      Hello
      You can get quite close to it if you insulate the room very carefully, and have very good aspirators everywhere!
      If you breath in the room and the room is closed and well insulated, you might transform all the oxygen in carbon dioxide at some point, depending how many of you guys are in the room and how big is the room.

    • Photo: Joshaniel Cooper

      Joshaniel Cooper answered on 12 Nov 2014:

      When NASA are testing their space rockets they put them into a huge room (big enough for the rocket) and take out almost all of the air so that they can see if the rocket leaks. The rocket is bigger than a plane, so you can imagine how big the room which they take the air out of is!

    • Photo: Lisa Simmons

      Lisa Simmons answered on 12 Nov 2014:

      Creating a near perfect vacuum is no easy task, in a room it would never be possible. Compare the size of a crack in the wall to the size of a molecule of air; air will always get through

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