A vacuum (: vacuums or vacua) is a space devoid of matter. The word is derived from the Latin adjective vacuus for "vacant" or "void". An approximation to such vacuum is a region with a gaseous pressure much less than atmospheric pressure. Physicists often discuss ideal test results that would occur in a perfect vacuum, which they sometimes simply call "vacuum" or free space, and use the term partial vacuum to refer to an actual imperfect vacuum as one might have in a laboratory or in space. In engineering and applied physics on the other hand, vacuum refers to any space in which the pressure is considerably lower than atmospheric pressure. The Latin term in vacuo is used to describe an object that is surrounded by a vacuum.
The quality of a partial vacuum refers to how closely it approaches a perfect vacuum. Other things equal, lower gas pressure means higher-quality vacuum. For example, a typical vacuum cleaner produces enough suction to reduce air pressure by around 20%. But higher-quality vacuums are possible. Ultra-high vacuum chambers, common in chemistry, physics, and engineering, operate below one trillionth (10−12) of atmospheric pressure (100 nPa), and can reach around 100 particles/cm3. Outer space is an even higher-quality vacuum, with the equivalent of just a few hydrogen atoms per cubic meter on average in intergalactic space.
Vacuum has been a frequent topic of philosophical debate since ancient Greek times, but was not studied empirically until the 17th century. Evangelista Torricelli produced the first laboratory vacuum in 1643, and other experimental techniques were developed as a result of his theories of atmospheric pressure. A Torricellian vacuum is created by filling with mercury a tall glass container closed at one end, and then inverting it in a bowl to contain the mercury (see below).
Vacuum became a valuable industrial tool in the 20th century with the introduction of incandescent light bulbs and vacuum tubes, and a wide array of vacuum technologies has since become available.
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This course is a real contact with industrial robotic applications. Components and mechanisms are reminded. The fields of microtechnical assembly and packaging are treated. CTOs from established compa
Ce cours pratique permet d'acquérir la connaissance des phénomènes physiques de base ainsi que de leurs applications, d'acquérir des connaissances concernant les méthodes d'observation et de mesure ai
Ce cours pratique permet d'acquérir la connaissance des phénomènes physiques de base ainsi que de leurs applications, d'acquérir des connaissances concernant les méthodes d'observation et de mesure ai
The first MOOC to teach the basics of plasma physics and its main applications: fusion energy, astrophysical and space plasmas, societal and industrial applications
The first MOOC to teach the basics of plasma physics and its main applications: fusion energy, astrophysical and space plasmas, societal and industrial applications
In classical physics and general chemistry, matter is any substance with mass and takes up space by having volume. All everyday objects that can be touched are ultimately composed of atoms, which are made up of interacting subatomic particles, and in everyday as well as scientific usage, matter generally includes atoms and anything made up of them, and any particles (or combination of particles) that act as if they have both rest mass and volume. However it does not include massless particles such as photons, or other energy phenomena or waves such as light or heat.
A vacuum pump is a type of pump device that draws gas particles from a sealed volume in order to leave behind a partial vacuum. The first vacuum pump was invented in 1650 by Otto von Guericke, and was preceded by the suction pump, which dates to antiquity. The predecessor to the vacuum pump was the suction pump. Dual-action suction pumps were found in the city of Pompeii. Arabic engineer Al-Jazari later described dual-action suction pumps as part of water-raising machines in the 13th century.
Plasma () is one of four fundamental states of matter, characterized by the presence of a significant portion of charged particles in any combination of ions or electrons. It is the most abundant form of ordinary matter in the universe, being mostly associated with stars, including the Sun. Extending to the rarefied intracluster medium and possibly to intergalactic regions, plasma can be artificially generated by heating a neutral gas or subjecting it to a strong electromagnetic field.
Helicenes represent an important class of chiral organic material with promising optoelectronic properties. Hence, functionalization of surfaces with helicenes is a key step toward new organic materials devices. The deposition of a heterohelicene containin ...
Hoboken2024
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Near-surface negatively charged nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers hold excellent promise for nanoscale magnetic imaging and quantum sensing. However, they often experience charge-state instabilities, leading to strongly reduced fluorescence and NV coherence ti ...
In Part I of this paper, an inequality satisfied by the vacuum energy density of the universe was derived using an indirect and heuristic procedure. The derivation is based on a proposed thought experiment, according to which an electron is accelerated to ...