[abeacham]

I have this question for some physics homework and can not find the answer anywhere, including the textbook that the question is in. Any help would be great. Thanks.

[Capuchin]

I'm not sure what you mean by "can gravity act as a vacuum?"

Can you explain your question a little more fully? It seems very poorly worded.

[abeacham]

I'm not sure how else to ask the question, that is exactly how it is written in my textbook. Thanks for the quick response though... :)

[ebaines]

I wonder if they aren't trying to be cute, using the word "vaccum" to mean "vacuum cleaner?" I could imagine that someone could liken a vacuum cleaner to gravity, in that it attracts objects like dust and dirt (through suction). But that's a pretty weak analogy - I admit it's a bit of a stretch.

[Capuchin]

I'm imagining a vacuum cleaner that, instead of pumps inside, has a small contained neutron star or black hole. The main problem with this being that it doesn't matter where you point your nozzle, things are going to be attracted towards it from all directions.

[ISneezeFunny]

Hm. I'm going to go with what Capuchin said, in that a black hole has such a huge gravity pull that even light's escape velocity cannot overcome it.

As far as a vacuum goes, I'm not going to go with a vacuum cleaner, but a vacuum, which has negative pressure, and thus sucks everything into it.

So I guess they perform the same actions, as they suck things into it, however, their mechanism is different... a black hole has a huge gravity pull, while a vacuum... is about pressure, not gravity.