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Transporting Limburger Cheese w/o the Stink
This is basically a physics question, but I could see where it might have legal implications...
Suppose a person has an unusual love of limburger cheese. Problem is, all his friends have exceptionally sharp noses and will raise hell if they catch the faintest whiff of it. So here's what he does:
1. He purchases a vessel (perhaps a steel coffee thermos) that's impermeable and has a fair amount of structural integrity.
2. He then proceeds to put the cheese in the thermos--being very careful not to spill a crumb on the outside, at around sea level *while in a sauna at 140deg F* and he screws the lid on.
3. He then transports the cheese in an unpressurized vehicle (like a train or auto) at around sea level, at a temperature MUCH lower than 140F.
The physics: the pressure in the thermos stabilized at 1ATM in the sauna. As air cools, it contracts, leaving a partial vacuum once it cools. The metal's impermeable, it's structually sound, and if none was spilled on the outside, any minute leakage of air would necessarially be INTO the thermos, not out.
Would there be any way for even a superhuman nose to detect the cheese?
Final iteration. Suppose a law were passed to make transporting cheese across state lines a felony. SWIM ('cause we're talking about a theoretically illegal act) has the misfortune to be stopped, be searched, and 30 thermoses (thermi?) are found. Absent any other evidence, would 30 thermoses be sufficient grounds for a warrant to open them?
Thanks guys. It's actually cool to do the mental exercise necessary to form theoretical questions, though I bet it gets old by the 50th post or so...
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