I’m trying to train someone on a piece of equipment that relies on a certain understanding of pressure. Now this person would not be my first pick for the position and I’m not going into details of why this person was picked… But they are struggling with the concept and I am struggling as a trainer.
How would you explain a vacuum to a 5 year old?
In: Physics
Ball pit is your container.
full of balls.
A vacuum is an empty ball pit or close to it. It’s a ball pit with very few balls and is not fun.
They might not know that vacuum has two meanings.
1. Lack of stuff
2. The machine that sucks.
Figure out if that is the issue. Then try to explain around that.
A vacuum is a lack of content. It is space minus what would normally be *in* space. A vacuum is a low spot that gravitates all else toward it.
Air is a thing. It is molecules of all sorts of gases, it even has weight. If you remove all this *stuff* from a container, you get a vaccuum. (My first response here hope its helpful)
I don’t feel like reading all comments to see it this was answered properly.
ELU5: shake your hands around with fingerd extended. You feel something? That’s air. Air is invisible but it’s present everywhere.
Normally, when you say a box is empty, it’s becase you don’t see anything inside. Vacuum is like true emptyness. Absolutely nothing is inside the box, even invisible things (air).
When that happens, air (or any other fluid around the box) will try to fill that vacuum by sneaking in thru any hole present. If the hole is small enough, you can sense this “suction” from the inside of the box, even if there’s nothing inside that would “suck” the air from outside.
Another example is a plastic straw. If you start sucking, the air inside the straw will go into your mouth and the liquid will go up too. If before the liquid reaches you, you put your finger on the straw end, the liquid will stay in place. That part of the straw between your finger and the liquid has nothing, it’s a vacuum. When you remove your finger, air will go inside, and with the help of gravity, will start pushing the liquid back to the cup.
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