Discussion Main / ContinuousDecompression

• Goldfinger uses a variant of this trope, where incredibly big people are blown out of an incredibly small hole.
  • It may be actually possible to perform this, as this video of a crab being sucked entirely through a hole many times smaller than itself demonstrates. Also related, the MythBusters squeezing a meat dummy into a diver helmet merely by removing its internal air pressure. Scary, scary stuff that may provide a basis for this in reality, though movies are frequently known to exaggerate those well beyond realism.
    • The difference is the degree of pressure difference, the unlucky crab on the sea floor wandered near a crack in a pipe where the internal pressure was many atmospheres lower than the water outside of it while in an airplane there is a much smaller difference of less than one atmosphere in pressure (if there was no air outside the airplane then it wouldn't be able to fly.)
  • In the original novel for Goldfinger, James Bond deliberately caused it (while in the film it is an accident), supposedly having been inspired by a real-life event.

This example is a mess. Could someone who knows the film and/or book fill them out properly and restore them with proper indentation, please?

Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving. -Terry Pratchett

it may be worth noting that IN atmo, such as in a few bond movies, the speed of the plane would create a low pressure zone, that would continue to suck indefinitly (at least thats how i think it would work, correct me if im wrong)

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I see an entry for "Alien: Resurrection" but nothing about "Alien", or more importantly "Aliens" (if I am remembering the plot for Alien correctly it was a very small space with a very big door and was handled realistically, if you assume that Ripley was able to over-ride the safety/air conservation interlocks (mechanical or electronic) that keep the outer door from opening before the room is pumped down.

Christian Furry Brony D&D gamemaster & homebrewer Hide / Show Replies

I just want to note that, for some of these, particularly Star Trek and similar tech levels, air is pretty much the least valuable commodity onboard a starship, and they can excuse having the life support systems constantly blasting air into the depressurized room. It's still stupid, but it's an explanation.