I have an idea that probably will not work, it is hard to explain, but I will try.
Take a tube that is and oval. On one side of the tube is a turbine that is connected to generator and such. Fill the tube mostly full of water, but somehow make a vacuum out of the space that is not used for water. Wouldn’t the water go around and around the tube because of the vacuum. I don’t think that this would work, but don’t vacuums try to fill the space with matter?
Like I said I dont think this would work, but I am only 15, and don’t understand much about physics.
The water won’t chase the vacuum around in a circle because the vacuum is exerting a pull on both ends of the water-filled portion of the ring equally. No net movement of water, so no turning of the turbine.
But your hunch is right about the water trying to fill the vacuum. The water would soon replace the vacuum with water vapor and dissolved gases released.
Short answer: it won’t work.
Long answer: If you have a vacuum on one end and water on the other, there must be a continuous vacuum or it will soon fill with air again. Water is merely Hydrogen and Oxygen combined in a liquid form. The only thing that stops it from turning into air again is the pressure in the air is greater than the pull of the H and O in the water to become part of the air. Water doesn’t boil because it becomes hot, it boils because it’s trying to cool itself down and maintain a balance. It boils because it’s trying to release the pressure inside the water to the outside air, which now has less pressure than the water. It’s the reason why you can boil at around 99 degrees C rather than 100 degrees C in the mountains. Air pressure is lower up there and so it takes less energy to get water to match the pressure and start boiling.
What does all this mean? Simply put, when there’s a vacuum, there’s no pressure in the air and the water will automatically start boiling. There’s no force holding the water in a liquid state and it will try to strike a balance between water pressure and air pressure. So, while you might start out with a vacuum, you’ll end up with air inside. But…if you continually suck out the air being created inside, keeping a vacuum, the water will continue to boil away in a frantic effort to keep the balance. Doing so makes it lose heat and what you’ll end up with is a tube full of water boiling itself into an ice cube. It’s kinda cool, try it
<LL blinks>
Ender, buddy, I think you need to head to bed. I’ve said much stupider things when only half-awake, but only extremely rarely.
If you’d like a point-by-point, I’ll give it, but only after I’m fully awake myself. 
LL
kgriffey79 - welcome to the SDMB! You might want to pay a bit more attention to where you are posting - you may have intended to post this in MPSIMS, but I’m betting you’d get a bit better of an answer in the General Questions forum.
Anyway, Enderw is a bit off the mark - it is not the pressure that holds the hydrogen and oxygen together in water. Water is a chemical compound of hydrogen and oxygen, not just a mixture. In order to break the water back down into hydrogen and oxygen you need to add some energy to break the chemical bonds, and just exposing it to a vacuum won’t do it. Electricity, radiation, or extreme heat could do it.
Ender may have just been trying to explain that the water will boil until there is enough water vapor in the vacuum to keep the water from evaporating or boiling any more. The vapor in the tube will be water, though, and not free hydrogen and oxygen.
Orca’s right - if you have a vacuum on both ends of the water, there won’t be a reason for the water to go either direction - it’s like trying to pick yourself up by your shoelaces.
Good question, though - I encourage you to take Chemistry and Physics classes in High School if you can, you’ll know a lot about this type of stuff when you are done.
Well, I have been up all day praying and fasting, but that won’t be an excuse. If I’m wrong, I’m wrong, and will freely admit that. I’d like to know how I’m wrong, though. Doesn’t have to be tonight. My explanation might be just a tad off but I can’t imagine by that much. The result is just the same.
Douglips, you don’t need heat at all to make water boil. Take away pressure and it will happen by itself. I’ve seen it done. In fact if, for some reason I can’t even begin to fathom, you find yourself out in space without a spacesuit, you won’t die from lack of oxygen. You’ll die because your blood boiled you to death.