Recent content by davidjonsson

I suppose I should use the speed \overline{v^{2}_{x}} =\overline{v^{2}_{y}} =\overline{v^{2}_{z}} = \overline{v^{2}_{rms}}/3 instead of v_{rms} in my calculation above. Right? Seems like the effect will shrink to one third then. David

The gas molecules collide on average 9 billion times a second but since collision is perfectly elastic that doesn't change the total momentum of involved particles. It doesn't matter if the molecules collide or not. Despite frequent collisions most of the time the molecules are freely floating...

My assumption is based on a even distribution of molecular motions in all three dimensions. Remeber that the effect is based on the square of the speed and not the mean velocity you refer to which is linear. Do calculations on pairs of oppositely moving particles and you will find that they do...

The adiabatic heat gradient is determined as \gamma = \frac{g}{c_{p}} where \gamma is the rate that temperature falls when rising in an atmosphere. g is gravitational acceleration and c_{p} is the heat apacity. On Earth it is 9.8 Kelvin per kilometer close to the surface of the Earth...