Not a problem. Trying to help.
erospawn, you said you wanted to try the old "feather-solid object" test. It'll work, if you remove enough of the air. If you trap a flying bug in your chamber and remove the air, he won't be able to fly. You might think being under a vacuum would kill him, but it won't because you can't remove enough of the air (nor fast enough, which is another key part) to make his fluids boil (which is what is suppose to be happening in "space movies" when they open their helmets).
Since MOST vacuum is measured in "microns" now, the lower the number, the better (of course). How many CFM's can be important too. The faster it can remove those microns, the better if you're working against the clock.
The concept of microns (as it relates to vacuum) is easy to understand. Atmospheric pressure measures around 760,000 microns. 0 microns would be a perfect 30 inches of mercury, or 29.97 HG. A perfect vacuum is practically impossible on earth simply because it would be almost impossible to remove 100% of the air. The weight of the air pressure around us, give or take for altitude, is 14.97 PSI at sea level. That being the case, 760,000 microns=14.97 PSI, so calculations for microns to PSI equivalents can fairly easily be worked out if you want to get that deep into it. For all intents and purposes, a vacuum pump is a micron remover.
This next part is simply for fun. The closest you'll ever get a piece of equipment to pull a full 30 HG of vacuum, without spending TONS of money, is as simple as a quality syringe. Try this if you want to. Get a good syringe (30, 40, 60cc's will work) and fill it about half full of slighty warm tap water and remove the air in the head space. Hold your thumb on the opening and pull back the plunger on the syringe WITHOUT letting any air in. The water will actually boil at room temperature. Hook the same syringe up to a vacuum gage and it will consistantly bottom out a 30HG vacuum gage. A standard good quality syringe pulls the absolute BEST vacuum of anything I've ever tried and I have access to some VERY heavy duty vacuum equipment.
erospawn, you said you wanted to try the old "feather-solid object" test. It'll work, if you remove enough of the air. If you trap a flying bug in your chamber and remove the air, he won't be able to fly. You might think being under a vacuum would kill him, but it won't because you can't remove enough of the air (nor fast enough, which is another key part) to make his fluids boil (which is what is suppose to be happening in "space movies" when they open their helmets).
Since MOST vacuum is measured in "microns" now, the lower the number, the better (of course). How many CFM's can be important too. The faster it can remove those microns, the better if you're working against the clock.
The concept of microns (as it relates to vacuum) is easy to understand. Atmospheric pressure measures around 760,000 microns. 0 microns would be a perfect 30 inches of mercury, or 29.97 HG. A perfect vacuum is practically impossible on earth simply because it would be almost impossible to remove 100% of the air. The weight of the air pressure around us, give or take for altitude, is 14.97 PSI at sea level. That being the case, 760,000 microns=14.97 PSI, so calculations for microns to PSI equivalents can fairly easily be worked out if you want to get that deep into it. For all intents and purposes, a vacuum pump is a micron remover.
This next part is simply for fun. The closest you'll ever get a piece of equipment to pull a full 30 HG of vacuum, without spending TONS of money, is as simple as a quality syringe. Try this if you want to. Get a good syringe (30, 40, 60cc's will work) and fill it about half full of slighty warm tap water and remove the air in the head space. Hold your thumb on the opening and pull back the plunger on the syringe WITHOUT letting any air in. The water will actually boil at room temperature. Hook the same syringe up to a vacuum gage and it will consistantly bottom out a 30HG vacuum gage. A standard good quality syringe pulls the absolute BEST vacuum of anything I've ever tried and I have access to some VERY heavy duty vacuum equipment.
~Recycle~