How does a vacuum cleaner work and how is it able to suck like that?
In: Engineering
A vacuum cleaner basically has a powerful fan in it that blows air out of the cleaner. Now, when there’s more air on the outside, there has to be less on the inside, which is the case. We will need this again later.
Air is not weightless. The more you stack, the more weight pushes down on the part that’s all at the bottom. This is for example why the air is thinner on mountains where there’s just less air pushing down and creating pressure. This pressure is called atmospheric pressure and at sea level 1 Bar.
Now back to the vacuum cleaner. There’s now air “missing” inside the machine, but the atmospheric pressure that exists even in your house is still trying to compress the air below it. The air below it doesn’t want to be compressed and looks for places to go, which happens to be your vacuum cleaner. This flow of air, also called wind, now blows dust into the vacuum cleaner where it’s collected in a bag.
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