[Closed] Very Hypothetical Physics Question

Surely the atmosphere would go first?

What would it be sucking?

Hoover's won't work in space

Define "suck"

Me first! Is it on a conveyor belt?

I guess you could consider a black hole as being a hoover. In that case the whole planet, atmosphere and all, would be spaghettified.

I don't know what or how it sucks, my six year old son asked me and I didn't know the answer. So obviously I asked you lot. I guess it could be interpreted as: Is the gravity that holds the atmosphere on the Earth stronger than the gravity that holds the Earth in solar orbit? But then this would be affected by the size of the hoove nozzle, distance from the Earth etc.
I'll ask him for more specific parameters over breakfast tomorrow (and how he possibly thought he was going to get a hoover to work in space).

Assuming it does it very quickly - milliseconds then the[majority of the] atmosphere will stay but it if is slowly sucked in the atmosphere will go first

How big is this hoover? There's a danger you'd just end up with the earth still going around the sun with its atmosphere intact and a great big hoover floating about in the Pacific as it had sucked itself onto the Earth

This is the kind of question my 7 year old daughter comes out with out of the blue and when I stutter to some kind of answer I get 'why?'

Which dimension is it sucking in?

If you were to bump one of the turtles akin to the way you'd perhaps hit the skirtingboard occasionally, this could cause the earth to roll off the turtles back and fall broken on the ground. Rosebud.

Depends if it has a bag, or a Dyson.

I think an experiment is in order.

Beans on toast?

Golf ball covered in jam?

It's a non question really as you'd struggle to find a power outlet to plug the Hoover in to.

I think an experiment is in order.
Beans on toast?

That would be a miele.

Hoovers work by creating an area of lower pressure inside them than outside. This causes air to rush in from the outside. As space is already an almost perfect vacuum you couldn't create an area of lower pressure and it wouldn't he able to suck anything in. Q.E.D.

Surely as it's space it would have to be a gravity Hoover. Objects with more mass are more susceptible to gravity???
So it would all move together.
If it was in air. Then lighter bits first. Imagine a dust bunny in the corner with a marble in the middle. The dust moves first.

Have you been reading What-If to him at bedtime? ( http://what-if.xkcd.com)? If not you probably should...

I'm thinking that your son's asking from the angle of something soft or fluid sat on something more rigid or permanent, like curtains or liquid that when you get too close with a hoover, whip up into the nozzle. In this case the atmosphere is the fluid thing and the earth is the floor on which it rests. If so the start of the answer is understanding the nature and strength of the force that binds the atmosphere to the earth. But then of course in What-If style there's the prompt divergence into what happens to us on earth as the atmosphere's stripped, to the massive intergalactic hoover as it fills up with the atmosphere and as its 'infinite power' dial goes higher... (a variable suction black hole).

Surely as it's space it would have to be a gravity Hoover. Objects with more mass are more susceptible to gravity???

I don't know what or how it sucks, my six year old son asked me and I didn't know the answer.

Ah that kind of hypothetical question - a bit like 'Mum - what would you do if it suddenly started raining knives?'

how massive would you need to be to attract all the dust off the carpet so you never had to do the hoovering anyway

Nature abhors a vacuum [ref the Gary Larson cartoon thread] 🙂

The earth's atmosphere is such a tiny mass of gas (compared to a planet has) that anything attempting to capture a planet will grab it. The planet exists around nothing (space) so any attempt to capture the planet will result in the atmosphere being pulled like a layer of sticky dirt on a tennis ball

how massive would you need to be to attract all the dust off the carpet so you never had to do the hoovering anyway

This big.

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how massive would you need to be to attract all the dust off the carpet so you never had to do the hoovering anyway

Impractically big

how massive would you need to be to attract all the dust off the carpet so you never had to do the hoovering anyway

Just a little bit heavier than the earth (and on top of the carpet). Hoovering would be the least of your worries.

Nice one irc.

It's a non question really as you'd struggle to find a power outlet to plug the Hoover in to

It's a non question really as you'd struggle to find a power outlet to plug the Hoover in to

Theres one on Planet Zanussi