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One of my students asked an interesting question today. She had
been wondering over the weekend (I love it when they wonder) what
would happen if a fish tank with a fish inside were were sealed
with a lid that would not leak and placed into orbit on the
shuttle. The tank would contain water, fish, and a small amount
of air. Her first questions were: 1) What would happen to the
air space? 2) Would the fish be able to swim and if so what
would it look like?
My thoughts on the air space are that it would tend to stick
together into one large bubble because of the surface tension of
the water. Many small currents caused by things like, thermal
convection, inadvertent jostling, and perhaps even random
molecular motions, would be present causing the bubble to move to
and fro somewhat like a confused lava lamp.
As to the swimming fish I would guess that such a fish would be
very confused indeed but would most likely swim more or less as
it would normally.
Any thoughts. What factors should we consider that have not
already been mentioned? Does anyone know if NASA has ever
conducted such an experiment?