Mythbusters lifted a 2 ton car using a consumer grade vacuum cleaner. the math is this: the air pressure over 1 sq meter is about 10 tonnes, so if make a box with that area and reduce the pressure by 0.25 atm, you get a force of equivalent to 2.5 tonnes, enough to lift the car.
I'm surprised a vacuum company didn't beat them to it. That would have made a pretty great marketing campaign ("the vac with enough suction to lift a car").
The seal won't be perfect so you'll be running the pump more or less continuously. Apropos manhole covers: I wonder what would happen if this car would drive over one. Or was that your point?
Yes, and those don't have fans underneath, that's just the ground effect. This is probably far worse. I also wonder how large the intake holes are because you can easily imagine what the effect would be pulling that trick on a road surface that's not perfectly clean.
Mythbusters lifted a 2 ton car using a consumer grade vacuum cleaner. the math is this: the air pressure over 1 sq meter is about 10 tonnes, so if make a box with that area and reduce the pressure by 0.25 atm, you get a force of equivalent to 2.5 tonnes, enough to lift the car.
https://www.youtube.com/live/GbqKwPktCdo?xstg=CAMSBhUDze3xHw...
I'm surprised a vacuum company didn't beat them to it. That would have made a pretty great marketing campaign ("the vac with enough suction to lift a car").
They did
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yczxUJLPhkg&ra=m
Atmospheric pressure is around 14psi, at a rough guess a manhole cover is around 200lbs so you'd need just a little over 14sq in to make that work.
F1 has taught me: yes, and it will destroy your car.
Sure, why not?
The seal won't be perfect so you'll be running the pump more or less continuously. Apropos manhole covers: I wonder what would happen if this car would drive over one. Or was that your point?
This is why they temporarily spot weld manhole covers before street races.
Yes, and those don't have fans underneath, that's just the ground effect. This is probably far worse. I also wonder how large the intake holes are because you can easily imagine what the effect would be pulling that trick on a road surface that's not perfectly clean.