3 Impossible problems

[fbhjr]

My boss like my solution for defrosting the freezer racks in the machine I’m designing using compressed air to blow off the ice.
He made the following other suggestions to me for removing the ice, knowing they violate the laws of physics:
Hot vacuum
200 PSI vacuum
Anti Gravity

Hot vacuum is impossible because temperature is the result of having lots of molecules hitting things. Therefore, if it is a vacuum, there are no molecules to do the hitting.
I told him: Have a transparent vacuum tube and fire an infrared laser down it. It will give you thermal energy in your vacuum. Not technically a hot vacuum, but it should work.
He started to laugh, then stopped.
“Wait, that would work,” he said.

200 Pounds per square inch of vacuum is impossible because atmospheric pressure is only 14 pounds per square inch. So, even if you have a total vacuum, you can’t have more pressure then what is outside of it.
“Every 33 feet of ocean gives you 14 more pounds per square inch,” I said. “So, at 561 feet below the ocean, the outside pressure is 252 pounds per square inch. A vacuum there would get you what you needed.
“So, you just have to install the machine on the bottom of the ocean to get that one.”

“OK, do anti-gravity,” he said.
I’ve got to admit. He’s got me stumped on that one.
Sad.

Actually this reminds me a lot of dinner growing up. These sort of trick questions are just the sort of thing my father would ask at dinner to find out what we’d say.

Comments

[cissa.livejournal.com]

Hee! Thanks for the giggles. :)