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So I think airships are cool and my world already has a source for crazy physics-breaking materials, and I thought, why not add another one to make airships slightly better? (Which based off other answers I've browsed caps out at 6-7% better compared to helium).

Introducing vacium (because the scientists that discovered it were not feeling creative).

Introduction to Vacium

Vacium is a low density liquid (merging with other globs of vacium in contact with it). It's produced in relatively small amounts by an exotic flying creature in this foreign land.

Properties

When not contained properly (exposed to gas/not in contact with null-vacium), vacium will begin to "intake vacuum" until it creates a bubble of near-perfect vacuum trapped inside a thin film of vacium (which is technically part force-field since the thickness would be measured in micros). I imagined it to be like a drop of soap, except it's self-inflating.

The surface of the vacium bubble is almost frictionless. It will also exert an mild overpressure similar to an inflated balloon when pressed on and will deform to some extent without rupturing.

Similar to a soap bubble, objects puncturing it will not rupture it but will rather just slide through before being subject to an increasing pushing force attempting to maintain its internal vacuum. In the event of rupturing, vacium in contact with each other will rapidly pull back toward its liquid glob state before inflating again as soon as it gains enough cohesion.

Tentative maths

A gram of inert vacium at 1 atm will have a density of 0.15/mL. Once rendered non-inert, it will expand to a 100 liter (100,000 cm3) spherical volume. Overall, compared to one gram of hydrogen, it is 1/9th the density and the values can be changed. The effective density is 0.01g/L, with a lifting force of 1.282 kg/m3 (assuming the density of air being 1.292).

Nullification w/ Null-Vacium

Contact of null-vacium (also produced by the exotic creature to regulate its own flight) with the vacium bubble will cause the vacium to leak and the vacium will revert to its liquid form until removed. The null-vacium will not mix with the vacium and its nullification property propagates through the vacium itself.

Issue

Now that I have this substance, I'm worried about what other "game-breaking" uses it might have.

Ideally, it's limited to just the cool airship that could potentially lower costs enough to steal part of ocean shipping's pie and reduce costs of airship cruises, but from my experience this kind of physics-breaking material usually have applications I didn't think of.

I also think this violates the second law of thermodynamics, but I'm not smart enough to know what the implications are.

The question is what other applications does this substance have? I considered parachutes, but it would depend on how quickly the vacium "inflates."

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  • $\begingroup$ How much pressure does the substance exert while expanding? Obviously at least 15psi, but how much more? That will determine how much work you can get out of it while it's expanding (all of which is a violation of thermodynamics). How easy is it to pierce? How quickly does it collapse? A human-sized vacuum implosion is like a thunder clap. $\endgroup$
    – Robert Rapplean
    Commented 9 hours ago

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Take any application which today use vacuum pumps, and you will find your potential use: from trivial vacuum cleaners (welcome Dieson!) to advanced IC production, your vacium is going to be a game changer in the industry, allowing to produce vacuum without the hassle of having a power source at hand.

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  • $\begingroup$ Oh, well that was way more obvious than I thought. I should probably make a second question, then, to ask how I can make vacium require power. I tossed around the idea in my head that it requires that the gas that it's surrounded by must be chilled, but the energy usage still doesn't match up. $\endgroup$
    – Henry Shao
    Commented 19 hours ago
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    $\begingroup$ On second thought, maybe the energy cost isn't needed as the exotic creature is already using energy to produce the substance and we are just exploiting it. $\endgroup$
    – Henry Shao
    Commented 19 hours ago
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The "6-7% better compared to helium" will allow these airships to carry more than standard airships, but it won't be enough to compete with water-based shipping for anything other than wealthy passengers, mail, and low-mass/high-value cargo.

However, there is another difference between them. The size of the envelope of a Vacium airship is essentially unlimited. Unlike the standard version, it's structural integrity will allow them to be orders of magnitude larger, only really limited by the supply of Vacium.

So not only could you have massive cargo haulers, you could literally have floating cities.

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Extremely powerful

Depending on the exact type of gunpowder (black powder, smokeless powder etc), the combustion of 1 g of powder will result in around 0.2-0.3 L of gas. In comparison, 1 g of vacium will expand to occupy a volume of 100 L. While you have not specified how quickly the expansion and subsequent leakage (when exposed to null-vacium) occur, this is doing lots of work against a pressure of at least one atmosphere with zero energy input. So, depending on the expansion/leakage speed and maximum atmospheric pressure it will work in, this could be potentially an explosive, a firearms propellant or at a minimum the power source for a piston-driven perpetual motion machine.

Note the last point - no matter how slow the expansion/leakage occurs, this is doing work with no energy input, which is definitely violating the 2nd law of thermodynamics. How quickly it does that will determine what type of power generation/output mechanisms it is used for.

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It would make a normal ship far safer. You could use it to fill the hull. Or at least throw a drop of it into the part where there is a leak. With water, you get 1000 more displacement per unit of Vacium than with an airship.

Because it is so safe and easy to use, you could use it to float a gigantic sail high up where the wind is stronger to help a ship move. It would not only make airships easier to build, but it would also help waterships.

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Explosive armament

A cheap equivalent to thermobaric weapon would be dropping a handful of this stuff over some unhappy soldiers of theirs and watch them get shredded by inside pressure. Add a slurp and an activator into a bullet, and whoever is hit by that bullet would be popped up by vacuum inflation.

Safety device for subs

When they say "Blow out ballast", in order to surface, a sub has to displace water from its ballast tanks by compressed air to reduce its overall density. Use such a bullet with an activator instead, it would displace water about as good - if not, add more. "Pressurized vacuum", huh.

Underwater building support

Assume you need to build a something under the roof on the deep seabed, for example, a sea-based data center (a secret lab, a power generator, etc etc). You need people down there and an environment suitable for them. Drop an assembled roof then inflate some vacuum under it, then seal off water - there, some dry underwater area suitable for habitation (once vacuum would be removed after sealing all leaks).

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