CONSIDER KILGORE TROUT AS HUMAN CANNONBALL : Houston Indymedia

PART 1: WHAT TROUT LAUNCHER?

"THE ATMOSPHERIC MIXER" is a perpetual wind generator that could be used for the launch and requires no gunpowder, liquid oxygen or anything like that.

To use the proposed machine, "provisional patent currently filed in US", a very long tube approximately one meter in diameter could be fixed in place extending upward at an angle of about 80 degrees from a theoretical flat level plane at the base.

The base of the tube should be elevated by supports so that the end is above ground to allow air to flow in but is as near to sea level as possible. A pit can be excavated at the base of the tube to enhance performance. A cave near a steep mountain would be handy.

A remote control cut-off valve should be installed at the bottom.

A "wad" or a "pig" (an air tight plug to push through the tube with air pressure) should be fitted into the tube just above the valve and directly under Trout like a blow dart and should seal good enough to lift the weight of itself plus Trout.

PART 2: HOW TO LAUNCH TROUT

Simply put, the valve should be closed, Trout and the "pig" should be installed during construction. Then get away from the machine.

Now open the valve with the remote control and see Trout fly.

PART 3: WHY IT SHOULD WORK

Special thanks to Hugh D. Young, Carnegie-Mellon University, author of University Physics, eighth edition, for helping me understand and attempt to describe the math behind my intuition that this theoretical cannon should work.

We live in a sea of air with no container around it so it exerts atmospheric pressure on everything in it because of the air's own weight.

One atm, (one atmosphere of pressure) is considered to be about 14.7 pounds per square inch on everything at sea level. This represents the average air pressure at sea level.

The actual atmospheric pressure at sea level depends on the weather. As a practical matter it is the "barometric pressure" read by a barometer.

The density of air also varies with elevation. The weight density of air at the bottom of the tube, (near sea level) would be about 2.67 pounds (or 1.2 kilograms) per cubic meter. I mean to say that air in and near the bottom of the tube weighs about two and one half pounds per cubic meter depending on the weather.

Now if you could close the formerly described valve near the bottom of the tube and start connecting sections extending upward, the air at the bottom of the valve would have slightly more air pressure on it than at the top of the valve where Trout is located.

The two different pressures will attempt to reach equilibrium which eventually becomes impossible as the tube gets longer. In a laboratory it is difficult to simulate what gases like air do when they are not enclosed in a container. What is agreed upon by Pascal and H. D. Young is that pressure and density of gas in a large container, decreases with an increase in elevation. This is also true of the atmosphere as every pilot and mountaineer knows.

Eventually, only the the weight of air inside the tube exerts atmospheric pressure on Trout, but a tremendous volume of the atmosphere is still exerting pressure on the bottom of the valve.

If you could reach the height of Mount Everest, about 9145 meters (30,000 feet), the density of the air at the top of the tube would only be one third that of the air at the bottom of the valve. The atmospheric pressure where Trout is still waiting would be only slightly higher than the pressure at the top of the tube. Trout would need a breathing apparatus.

If we open the valve to let Trout have air then the "pig" has about 1300 square inches of surface area supporting Trout with 14.7 pounds per square inch of pressure applied to the bottom.

That works out to about 19,100 lbs of force applied upward on the "pig", minus the combined weight of Trout and the "pig", (250 pounds) and the small amount of atmospheric pressure he would currently be experiencing (about 5 psi or about 6500 lbs pushing downward against the one circular meter surface area of the pig).

19,100 pounds minus 6,750 pounds equals 12,350 pounds of force pushing upward on Trout minus drag due to friction. Trout starts to rise!

Let us temporarily stop time when Trout reaches an elevation of 2000 meters. The atmospheric pressure outside of the tube is a little bit less than the atmospheric pressure under Trout and his platform. The walls of the tube prevent equilibrium.

In order for equilibrium to take place, air would have to be pushed up to the top of the tube and flow inward. Not very likely. Even if the forces existed the air would disperse rather than fill the tube.

Or the atmospheric pressure under the platform would have to decrease to less than it is down near sea level at the bottom of the tube. Not very likely because a much larger volume of air is pushing from many directions and distributing this force equally along the tube walls upward and against the platform.

To reach equilibrium the the air pressure inside the tube and on top of the platform, plus the weight of that same air, would have to exert a force equal to one atmosphere. At 2000 meters, I guess the weight of that air in the tube would be about 5500 lbs distributed across one circular meter or about 1300 square inches. That adds another 4.25 lbs per square inch to the 5 lbs per square inch estimated air pressure in the tall tube pushing down on 14.7 lbs per square inch.

At the same time, restriction caused by Trout and his platform cause the air inside the tube and under the platform to increase in density like compressing a spring.

My reasoning indicates that the platform will continue to rise.

At about 8,450 meters, or 27,000 feet, the platform should slowly come to a stop. If the tube were reduced to a height of about 20,000 feet the launch might actually succeed.

If we don't bother to insert Trout then the result might be a perpetual updraft of substantial force.

PART 4: EQUILIBRIUM WOULD NEVER BE REACHED

My guess is that when Trout and his platform reach about 8,450 meters the platform would stop but air pressure on either side would not be equal assuming the seal between the platform and the tube did not leak.

The atmospheric pressure under the platform would be a little more than one atmosphere or nearly equal to the barometric pressure at the bottom of the tube. It only has the weight of Trout and the platform pushing down on it.

The atmospheric pressure on top of the platform would be nearly equal to the barometric pressure at the top of the tube.

Intuitively, it would be like inserting a small float inside of a straw and then submerging one end in a glass of water while holding the other end closed with your finger. The float would only rise a tiny distance until you remove your finger from the end. Then the float would rise in the straw on top of the liquid until equilibrium was reached.

But a gas is not quite the same as a liquid. Note that there are few if any natural or man made vessels of such a size in the world.

PART 5: EMERGENCY CONSIDERATIONS

I don't think anyone cares what happens to Trout but if the machine did work then the updraft might reach a catastrophic speed. Or some weather condition may cause it to start flowing backwards.

Such a condition might make it difficult to operate the cut off valve. But for about half the cost of building the beast you could call Bush and ask him to shoot it down with a cruise missile.

Another possible result is that the rapidly decompressing air would release water either causing snow, rain, or rain and ice in the tube.

Each successive tube within one quadrant of the earth would probably cause a noticeable decrease in performance.

by Dave Barnett
SCHEMING SPRINGS ENTERPRISES
copyright 2007, all rights reserved.