FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Bottled liquids expanding/contracting due to cabin pressure?
Old Sep 19, 2009 | 6:04 am
  #8  
altaskier
15 Years on Site
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Dillon, CO
Programs: AA EXP 4MM
Posts: 496
Sea level atmospheric pressure is 14.7 pounds per square inch (psi) or 101 kiloPascal (kPa). At 7,000 feet altitude (typical of jetliner cabin pressure during cruise), it's about 11.3 psi or 78 kPa. Thus when you descend from cruise to land, your pressure has increased by (101-78)/78 or 30%.

I've also taken an empty bottle sealed at sea level down to 110 feet depth while scuba diving, where the pressure is more like 435 kPa, so that the ambient pressure more than triples. The bottle gets crushed some more, though of course since you're breathing gas and thus always adjusting to the pressure you don't feel crushed at all.
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