Sunday 5 March 2017

Buoyancy and Particle Size as it Relates to Gravity

An old birthday trick has us filling a balloon with Helium. The Helium displaces a large volume of space with a light mass causing a low density. Relatively speaking there exists a vacuum where we find a concentration of Helium inside the balloon. Pressure is exerted on all boundaries of the relative vacuum known as our birthday balloon. There is more pressure at the bottom of the balloon and the low density balloon rises.

In the case of a helium balloons the inside of the balloon is filled with less dense single helium ions that associate themselves with two electrons. Outside the balloon we find Nitrogen diatomic molecules which are much more dense. Due to the large root mean squared speed of all of these molecules they find a buoyant balance very quickly. The balloon rises. This is the contrast between Helium and diatomic Nitrogen.

Electrons and ions of Silicon and iron exist in a veritable mesh in the Earth's mantle. The speed at which the electrons move with respect to the speed of the ions is fantastic. Ions stay still with a Brownian motion component whilst electrons dart about at one percent of the speed of light - root mean squared speed. The electron portion of the molecules that make up the Earth have a lower density. Electron charge pushes outwards from the center of mass while more massive ions or slower electrons will be pulled towards the center of mass.

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