Grade upto college level Mechanics
In 16S4 Otto von Guericke, Burgermeister of Magdeburg and inventor of the air pump, gave a demonstration before the Imperial Diet in which two teams of horses could not pull apart two evacuated brass hemispheres. (a) Show that the force F required to pull apart the hemispheres is F = πR2∆p, where R is the (outside) radius of the hemispheres and ∆p is the difference in pressure outside and inside the sphere (Fig. I5-21). (b) Taking R equal to 0.30S m and the inside pressure as 0.100 atm, what force would the team of horses have had to exert to pull apart the hemispheres? (c) Why were two teams of horses used? Would not one team prove the point just as well?
