deep ocean pressure

[hambone059]

what would happen if you submurged a rubber container full of hydrolic oil ,with a tube reaching the surface to the bottomof the ocean? Would it force the fluid through the tube to the surface at a high pressure or would the pressures cancel them selves out, and the fluid just reach sea level.

[topogigo]

The fluid would, if the tube was open at the surface, have exactly the same pressure values as the sea water around it.
If the tube was higher than the surface of the sea then the pressure would make the rubber expand until the level had dropped and the pressure was in equilibrium.

[wildwood]

I would say that any fluid in a flexible container on the bottom of the ocean as described would yield to the higher pressure and push the liquid up the tube.

If you mean a solid type rubber container that would not change shape under pressure, than no.

[chakka35]

How can the pressures cancel themselves out? The great pressure differential between the bottom of the sea and the surface would force the oil out through the tube.
If this were not so, divers would never suffer from the bends; water would never gush from geysers or oil from deep wells.

[Space]

if the fluid is less dense than sea water,
then yes, the container will get squished by the pressure and some of the fluid will get pushed above the sea level

[wildwood]

You can easily try this yourself. Put any liquid in a plastic bag with a piece of hose long enough to reach the top at the end taped up waterproof. As you push the plastic bag under water the pressure will squeeze the bag and push the liquid up the hose, it really makes no difference what type or density of liquid you have in the bag - it is the water pressure that pushes the liquid up the hose. If the hose is big enough even porridge will rise up the hose and spill out.

[topogigo]

Rubbish, think about it, and i have checked!

[Space]

wildwood, you don't understand why the water has a pressure in the first place.
If you did, then you would understand that for the same reason, the fluid has a pressure too,
and which of these 2 pressures is higher depends of the difference of density between the water and the fluid.

If they have the same density for example, then the fluid level will just rise up to the water level and not spill.

[chakka35]

space, this has nothing to do with the densities of the two fluids specified. .The question implies that the oil is plunged, at atmospheric pressure, into the high pressure of the bottom of the sea. This atmospheric pressure is maintained by the fact that the tube is open to atmos. For every 30 feet of depth the pressure on the rubber container will increase by 15 lbs per square inch. At, say, a thousand feet, work that out for yourself.

[topogigo]

I concur chakka

[beso]

chakka and wildwood are definitely wrong about the density having no effect.

While the liquid will definitely move up the tube and displace air, the pressure of the liquid inside the rubber container increases as the height of the liquid in the tube running to the surface increases. If it reaches the surface this height is obviously the same as the depth of the water on the outside.

If the liquid inside is also water the pressures are then equal because the water levels are the same inside and out. The water will not flow beyond the surface except due to its momentum from rising up the tube.

However if the liquid is less dense than water then it will be forced out of the end of the tube. Liquids that are denser than water will not reach the surface.

In case you are thinking there is some potential for extracting energy, remember that a lighter liquid inside the tube will also be buoyant and consequently require energy to make it submerge.