h a l f b a k e r yClearly this is a metaphor for something.
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A fish tank with fish in it and with a sealed lid and a hidden vacuum pump so that the air pressure in the space above the water is low enough to make the water boil, and so the fish swims around in boiling water.
[link]
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This is odd, even for here and you. |
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It might be possible, though, if the
depressurization
were slow. The main problem (once the swim
bladder had equilibrated) would be to ensure that
the contents of the fish did not boil. Given that
they contain lots of solutes, you might be able to
hit a sweetspot where the water boiled but the
fish
didn't explode. |
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Another potential problem - I'm not sure if oxygen
uptake by gills will be affected. |
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An air pump blowing bubbles from the bottom might provide an adequate illusion without any problems that might otherwise arise? |
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I don't know if the air pressure above the water has any effect on the fish or whether the fish and the fish's swim bladder are pressurised entirely by the pressure of the water above the fish. That is to say, would the fish ever notice the low air pressure? The only thing I can think of that might affect the fish is if the low air pressure above the water caused the water to deoxygenate (partial pressures and all that) which might cause the fish to die. Only experiment will answer this.
//This is odd, even for here and you.// <blushes at the compliment> |
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//would the fish ever notice the low air
pressure...?// |
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Yes. In normal air, the pressure is 15psi. Under a
few inches of water it will be slightly greater than
that. If you reduce the overlying air pressure, the
pressure below the surface will be reduced by just as
much. That, after all, is why the water can boil. |
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Provided the tank is over 10 metres deep, and you can persuade the fish to stay below that, the pressure should be fine. They might stay down of their own devices, or you might need a grille. |
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However, you'd be degassing the water, so they'd asphyxiate.
It _might_ be possible to introduce enough oxygen at the bottom by pumping air through, I don't know. |
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Or you could use only organisms which can get by anaerobically. Maybe swamp fish? |
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If you could ensure the fish stayed away from the surface, a grid of heating wires could actually boil the water in the top layer. Gravity / convection would stop the heat travelling downwards too much. Additional air bubbles from the bottom might complete the picture. |
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//If you could ensure the fish stayed away from the surface |
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They stay under, you get the illusion, they don't stay under, you get dinner. |
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It might be easier to employ a multi-walled
chambered tank, your fish could swim about in the
center while the peripheral pool around them boiled.
If you used double walled glass, you might even be
able to keep heat transfer down to acceptable levels. |
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" This is odd, even for here and you " |
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[+] Absolutely suitable for restaurant lobster tanks. Perverse will enjoy choosing and looking the dinner boiling alive, vegans...err..... |
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I thought about this possible ramification of my recent scheme to vacuum extract gases from sea water. Local critters might find the water deoxygenated. |
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Better solution: keep a tank of those shrimps from
hydrothermal vents, under high (but not quite as
high as they're used to) pressure. That way, the
water could be boiling at 180°C. |
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Actually, [Max] raises an interesting question. How
could one cook shrimp from hydrothermal vents? |
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[+] for inventing the aquatic version of quicksand. |
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Do those shrimp really live in 180°C water? Or do
they just live around the periphery of the vent
where the mixing brings the water to a nice
comfortable temperature? |
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Hmm. To my chagrin, I find that higher organisms
are only rated up to perhaps 80 or 90°C. |
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If you're satisfied with bacteria/archaea in your
fishtank, you can go up to about 120°C. |
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//I find that higher organisms are only rated up to perhaps 80 or 90°C. |
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What? Even with little Nomex jackets? |
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This *is* rather odd. I was afraid to click on the idea.
Afraid it would be about fish boiling in water. I'm not
all that relieved, but somewhat relieved because of
the author. Whew... |
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Ooo! Ooo! Here's a cool little snip. Scifi: the
luxury space cruiser suffers catastrophic loss of
pressure. The hero seeks refuge in the pool.
From below she can see the surface boiling and
pool toys exploding in the vacuum. Foam
kickboards bloat and distort grotequely. Her body
is a nucleation site as the water boils around her.
But down a meter, atmospheric pressure changes
do not affect her and she is safe. For a while. |
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OK. Now it would be tough to remedy the
situation while holding your breath at the bottom
of the pool. I will scheme further on that. |
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//Now it would be tough to remedy the situation while holding your breath at the bottom of the pool. |
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Just need a suitably large number of small children being tossed into the pool sequentially, do a bear hug and extract the air from their lungs. |
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Would also work with animals, best to avoid the larger carnivores. |
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(starts scribbling the lung capacity figures of a marmoset on the back of an envelope) |
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The fish would be allright for a little while in a reasonably big bowl, would die pretty quick in a glass. |
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But the temerature of the water would go down quickly and that can kill it also. |
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I think I was thirteen and if so my brother was nine.
I cleaned his fish tank. Put the fish in a jar, and put
the heating tube in the jar so the fish won't be
cold. It didn't quite fit, and I didn't realize that the
thermostat which was above the water would not
receive an indication that the water is heating up. |
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I went out of the room for a few minutes and when
I came back there were big bubbles in the water
and the fish were all swimming on their sides on the
top of the jar. |
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After it cooled down a bit, and after I tried mouth
to mouth respiration to no avail (or maybe that was
with my parakeets on Passover when I was ten, but
that's another story) we disposed of them in the
toilet, and I shed many tears along with them. |
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Once when (6 I think it was) took my pet goldfish out of his bowl to see how his skin would feel to stroke, unfortunately mother called me for lunch about then, & I left him sitting on the windowsill. |
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By the time lunch was over mouth to mouth was really not an option. |
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