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Devin, In a message dated 97-11-17 10:07:46 EST, you write: << Well, Good point, but there are several other factors at play. For example, nitrogen is lighter than oxygen but we surface dwellers aaren't stuck in a 100% O2 atmoshpheric shell. The other powers that be including entropy of mixing and the physical churning of the atmosphere play a much stronger role in homogenizing the atmosphere. Gravity is actually a pretty weak force as forces go. I know that certain facilities that produce their own cryogenic gases (He, Ar, N) actually get them straight out of the atmosphere..... I really don't know where the gas companies get it, but I do know that Air Products, when done condensing liquid N2 out of air at pressure, keeps the remaining gases for further extraction.... this may mostly be for O2 and Ar (yet another noble gas) but I don't really know. >> Gravity is the weakest of the four, I believe. Oxygen and Nitrogen are side by side on the periodic table - close enough in weight that the forces you mention, along with brownian motion, van der waals' force, and others neither of us have thought of, must be enough to maintain a homogenous mix. A solution ! This is something I've never thought about. I guess all the other trace elements must be heavy enough to stay in the atmosphere in solution. The thing about helium floating to the top of the atmosphere and getting blown off was not an assumption; I've read this somewhere. Maybe He, being inert, is not as subject to the forces that keep others in solution allowing individual atoms to migrate upwards ???? But then, there is Argon !?!?!? You've got me wondering now ! ! ! I recently saw a National Geo type special that spoke of the animals on some island who would be found dead because they ventured into depressions or holes where CO or some other undetectible gas that was a product of a local geological phenomenon would settle. THIS COULD HAPPEN TO YOU ! In fact it does - in homes everywhere when natural gas is allowed to pool along a floor and be ignited by the hot water heater. Or in sewers and other low enclosed spaces where OSHA has procedures for working to prevent the same problem. Eventually these gases would mix with the atmosphere for the same reason that sugar eventually mixes in tea which means that once they are dissipated they will act, not as a blob of gas, but as part of a solution which is what the N2 and O2 of the atmosphere must represent. You know what this is going to lead to ? Discussions about rolling tanks of mix ! Can anyone straighten us out on this ? Chuck -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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