86.  One way to administer an inoculation is with a “gun” that shoots the vaccine through a narrow opening. No needle is necessary, for the vaccine emerges with sufficient speed to pass directly into the tissue beneath the skin. The speed is high, because the vaccine

(ρ = 1100 kg/m3) is held in a reservoir where a high pressure pushes it out. The pressure on the surface of the vaccine in one gun is 4.1 x 106 Pa above the atmospheric pressure outside the narrow opening. The dosage is small enough that the vaccine’s surface in the reservoir is nearly stationary during an inoculation. The vertical height between the vaccine’s surface in the reservoir and the opening can be ignored. Find the speed at which the vaccine emerges.

 

Bernoulli’s equation is

 

We assume 1 is the gun reservoir and 2 is the air right above the skin.  Make the assumption the speed of the vaccine inside the gun reservoir is zero, v1 = 0 and the heights h1 and h2 are the same, so they cancel out.

 

Solve for v2

P1 is the amount of pressure in the gun reservoir which is atmosphere plus 4.1 x 106 Pa, while P2 is atmospheric pressure.

 

 

 

 

 

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This page last updated on January 11, 2020