Hi Brian.
If her atmosphere is compressed when she
floods her open to the hull interior ballast tanks and the atmosphere
is no longer exactly 1 atm, then she cannot be accurately called
1 atm which is 14.7 lbs of pressure per square inch.
Some people have said that she is "close"
to one atmosphere. But that is not 1 atm. It does not make sense to
call something a mathematically specific term when it is not. You
either are pregnant or you are not.
You cannot be close to pregnant, you
cannot be a little bit pregnant, you either are or you are not
pregnant. Just like it is either 14.7 lbs of pressure at sea level (1
atm) or it is not. It would be incorrect to call 15.7 lbs of
pressure
1 atm when it is not. That is what you
and others are saying with the Hunley though and it is not correct not
only for the Hunley but for any submarine that does not have an
interior atmosphere of exactly 14.7 lbs of pressure per square
inch.
A column of air one inch by one inch wide
extending up into the atmosphere 60 miles presses toward the earth
with a force or weight of 14.7 lbs also known as 1 atmosphere.
Our scientists and mathmaticians
calculated 1 atm to be 14.7 lbs. Not 15.7 lbs, not 16.7 lbs nor even
less at 13.7 lbs. Either a submarine's interior atmospheric pressure
is 1 atm or 14.7 lbs per square inch or it is not.
If the Hunley started out at the surface
with hatches open with an interior atmosphere of 14.7 lbs and
then trapped all her air when she submerged, then filled her open to
the hull interior ballast tanks with water which compressed the
rest of the hull's interior atmosphere to
a higher pressure than 14.7 lbs, then the Hunley's atmosphere was
no longer 14.7 lbs and therefore she was no longer a 1 atm sub. As I
said in an earlier e mail, what does "close to 1 atm"
mean?
Is that like "a little bit pregnant" or
shall we discuss what the subjective term "reasonable" means?
14.7 lbs of pressure is NOT subjective. It is a specific mathematical
term. 14.7, not 14.8, not 14.6, but 14.7 period.
If the atmosphere of ANY submarine is not
14.7 then they cannot accurately be called a 1 atmosphere
submarine and we need a new term to describe what type of submarine
she is. You can call a pig a giraffe if you want to, but that does
not
make it so. I seriously believe we need a
new term in the submarine world to address this discrepancy and I
already suggested it in an earlier posting regarding using 1 atm as a
baseline and testing pressure variables during sea trials and
then
catagorizing the sub from a baseline of 1
atm to whatever her largest pressure variable was. That is accuracy.
"Close to" is not. Show me a sub that has an interior atmosphere that
measures 14.7 lbs of pressure per square inch and I will agree
that is a
1 atm sub. If she has an atmosphere of
14.9 lbs, then she is not 1 atm since 1 atm is 14.7 lbs ONLY. There
may be times she is 1 atm and times she is not, so it would not be
correct to just call her by the term of 1 atm.
It is possible I may be incorrect about
the Hunley being ambient but there is no way she could be 1 atm either
with her tanks compressing her interior hull atmosphere.
I stand by my statement that we need a
new terminology that is mathmatically specific in describing what type
a sub is. If all the submarines that we normally think of as being 1
atm are actually not always 1 atm, then they cannot with
accuracy
be called 1 atm subs since they are not
always 1 atm. Why name something the specific term of 1 atm that
means a mathematical figure of 14.7 when that thing is not always
14.7?
Kindest Regards,
Bill Akins.
Sent: Friday, June 10, 2005
7:57 PM
Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST]
When is ambient, ambient and 1 atmosphere, 1 atmosphere?
The Hunley is a 1 ATM
submarine.
Brian Cox