compression checks

[Pottree@domain.elided]

In a message dated 11/12/2002 4:39:00 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
owner-alfa-digest@domain.elided writes:


> Subject: Commpression checks
> 
> Here is one to kick around, if I get a high reading at sea level, then 
> drive up to  a 14,000 foot mountain top.  would I get a higher or lower 
> reading then?   Fred
> 

Once I actually did drive up to a 14k mountaintop in CO, and the thin air 
made me so sleepy I could not drive down!

I'd say the atmospheric pressure up there would be less, so the compression 
could be more, as it has less to push against, even given the thinness of the 
local air.  I suppose people who work on airplane engines would have a more 
natural take on this, since (I'd guess) they work  on them at ground level 
but use them at altitude.

As a scuba diver, I know that the deeper under the sea you go, the greater 
the pressure of the water on the air in your body, and as you come back to 
the surface yo have to move slowly and hang out at an equalizing depth or you 
will get nitrogen bubbles boiling in your blood with possibly lethal effects. 
 So, I am supposing the same principal applies even though the body is 
somewhat softer material than the cylinders!

Charlie
LA, CA, USA
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