DB Sommer, at 2005-01-11 16:46, wrote:
"You know, if you keep pacing like that, you're going to wear a
hole through the deck plating, and then our air will get sucked
out and we'll implode," Killgore said.
Wouldn't that be explode?
Hmm. That people imploded in a vaccum, but i might be wrong.
Neither actually. If it were to be either of the two, it would be
explode as the internal pressure of the human body at a standard
atmosphere of pressure (1 atm or 101.325 kPa) is greater than the
external pressure of space (i.e. roughly a vacuum). However, even
under explosive decompression, the pressure differential between the
human body at a standard atmosphere and space isn't great enough to
cause a person to explode, regardless of what various bad sci-fi
would have you believe. You would have some popping of small near-
surface blood vessels, notably the eyes and nose, maybe the emptying
of the stomach and explosive release of bodily waste, etc. Painful
and nasty, but you wouldn't explode. To have someone to give their
best impression of a pop-corn kernel ("Watch close, I can only do
this trick once!"), you'd have to start them off at a much higher
initial pressure than one atmosphere. I don't know exactly what
that pressure would be (and no one wants to help me test... *pout*),
but it's not one that you'd ever be likely to find on a orbital
platform.
Suggest something like:
"You know, if you keep pacing like that, you're going to wear a
hole through the deck plating, and then our air will get sucked
out and we'll die messily," Killgore said.
"Delta-One, this is Flight Control. You're right on target.
Proceed through the hanger and to the designated landing pad.
Flight Control over and out." Sergeant Milgrew cut the comlink
and watched both his instruments and visually through the
transparent {plexiglass : Plexiglas} that separated the control
room from the landing bay as the ship settled gracefully into its
proper berth.
Though it's probably not trademarked by then.
Yeah. My thoughts on it.
Plexiglass and Plexiglas(R) are both used and correct, the former
being the non-trademarked version, the latter being the registered
trademark. Use whichever you prefer, I'd say, however....
I'd suggest dropping the "transparent plexiglass" completely and just
using portal or window, unless it's important that we know the portal
is filled specifically with plexiglass and nothing else (like silica
glass, transparent aluminum, a diamond derivative, a force-field,
wishful thinking, etc), which given the scene doesn't seem to be the
case, unless I missed something.
If you do keep it, I would suggest simply using "plexiglas[s]", as
"transparent plexiglass" is somewhat redundant. The Plexiglas(R)
brand acrylic and other generic plexiglass acrylics are chiefly
transparent.