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Assuming:

  • That I have an ideal straw (a very long pipe) from the ocean to space;
  • That the straw (pipe) is ideal (will not break);
  • That i can pump all the air from the pipe creating vacuum inside the tube;
  • That i can pump all the water from inside the tube till I reach the end of the straw;

Would I be able to drain all the oceans' water to space?

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  • $\begingroup$ No, water would just fall back. $\endgroup$
    – Mithoron
    Commented Jan 23, 2019 at 0:55
  • $\begingroup$ How do you intend to stop the water from just falling back to Earth? Can you spray it out the top at escape velocity (around 40,000 km/h)? I guess you could put it into orbit, which is about 70% slower. $\endgroup$
    – PM 2Ring
    Commented Jan 23, 2019 at 0:56
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    $\begingroup$ The water will not rise more than about 10 meters. Just like mercury will not rise more than about 760 mm. $\endgroup$
    – user137289
    Commented Jan 23, 2019 at 2:05
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    $\begingroup$ @Pieter you should turn it into an answer. Besides the current questions most don't know or easily neglect that there is a "suction limit" as there is nothing more empty than vacuum. Do it, I think is valuable here. $\endgroup$
    – Alchimista
    Commented Jan 23, 2019 at 9:14
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    $\begingroup$ @Pieter True, suction can't lift water higher than what the atmospheric pressure can push it up, but the OP is using a different kind of pump to push the water. $\endgroup$
    – PM 2Ring
    Commented Jan 23, 2019 at 18:39

1 Answer 1

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I get the idea, the density difference namely sucking all of the water out into the cosmos. I almost want to ask a competing question, namely, why doesn't this happen to everything already, how does the tube change anything? My point is, stuff sticks together in the first place, despite density trending to lower values, the other forces at play are greater, evidently by the formation of planets and stars.

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