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What would happen if you opened a jar in outer space and closed it, then brought it back to Earth. Would it explode, implode or nothing? Assume the jar is air tight and of basic 'off the shelf materials'-such as a mason jar.
Question Date: 2009-09-15
Answer 1:

Assuming that the jar was strong enough to survive being taken into space without rupturing in the first place, it would also be able to survive the air pressure outside of it when brought back to the Earth. It would depend on the thickness of the material the jar is made of, of course.

Here is an experiment you could do to test it, though: take your jar of air, and put it under ten meters of water. The pressure difference under ten meters of water to the surface is the same as the difference between the surface and space.


Answer 2:

When I was taking science in junior high school, our teacher had a vacuum pump and a glass container, and he turned on the vacuum pump to make vacuum in the glass container.He didn't turn the pump off, and after a while, the glass container imploded. Maybe the jar from space would do that, if it didn't leak and wasn't strong enough to hold a vacuum in earth's atmosphere.

Best wishes,


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