Can gasses be contained with centripetal force?

[Easy-cheesy]

Not sure if this is the right place to post or even a stupid question but anyway. If you had a chamber of gas and released it out of a barrel with force it would disapate into the air right? My question is, if you were to do this but somehow spin the gas particles so that they held themselves together with centripetal force, could the “gas cloud” travel further than what it would have if no centripetal force was applied?

 

[boneh3ad]

I am not sure if "contained" is the right way to put it, but a vortex will certainly stay together longer than non-rotating gas. You can also centrifugally separate multiple gases. That's essentially how modern uranium enrichment works.

 

[anorlunda]

I'm not sure I understand exactly what you mean. But it does sound a little like a smoke ring. If so, then yes for a short time a smoke ring holds itself together.

If that is not what you mean, can you draw a picture? Use the UPLOAD button next to POST REPLY and PREVIEW to put your picture in the post.

 

[CWatters]

What would the gas be released into?

In a vacuum (eg space) i think the gas will expand until the pressure is low enough for gravity to hold it together.

If the gas is spinning before it's released I think it will expand even faster. As it expands the rate of rotation will slow down (conservation of angular momentum).

The only source of centripetal force will be the gravitational force between molecules which would be very weak.

 

[CWatters]

Not sure if this is the right place to post or even a stupid question but anyway. If you had a chamber of gas and released it out of a barrel with force it would disapate into the air right? My question is, if you were to do this but somehow spin the gas particles so that they held themselves together with centripetal force, could the “gas cloud” travel further than what it would have if no centripetal force was applied?

Jut realized you might be missunderstand Centripetal force. Centripetal force has to be provided by something it's not caused by spinning alone.

When you spin a cylinder full of gas the walls of the cylinder provide the inward centripetal force. When you release the gas the centripetal force provided by the walls disappears.

 

[boneh3ad]

However, when a gas forms a vortex, it develops an inward facing pressure gradients that provides a centripetal force. That's how a tornado stays together.

 

[sophiecentaur]

When you spin a cylinder full of gas the walls of the cylinder provide the inward centripetal force. When you release the gas the centripetal force provided by the walls disappears.

The difference for a gas is that you can't 'pull' it towards a central point by intermolecular forces, as with a solid. A situation where you can provide a centripetal force for gases would be through gravitational forces. This can happen in a (very massive) spinning Nebula of gases (Hydrogen and Helium) in Space, which are held by gravity and which will eventually fall towards the centre and form a star. All stars and solar systems spin and this angular momentum is largely the same as the angular momentum of the original nebula of gas.

 

[Easy-cheesy]

Thanks for all the awesome replies everyone! I was thinking of plasma as the gas in this scenario and if you could some how spin it into a vortex, if it would hold itself together long enough to be propelled over a distance.

 

[sophiecentaur]

Thanks for all the awesome replies everyone! I was thinking of plasma as the gas in this scenario and if you could some how spin it into a vortex, if it would hold itself together long enough to be propelled over a distance.

Have you come across the phenomenon Ball Lightning? This link is just one of many. Ball lightning seems to be described in similar terms to your OP but afaik, it has not been fully explained. It seems to consist of a ball of plasma that sticks together and can travel in a fairly stable form over large distances. Excellent destructive weapon if it could be produced at will.

 

[Easy-cheesy]

Have you come across the phenomenon Ball Lightning? This link is just one of many. Ball lightning seems to be described in similar terms to your OP but afaik, it has not been fully explained. It seems to consist of a ball of plasma that sticks together and can travel in a fairly stable form over large distances. Excellent destructive weapon if it could be produced at will.

Yes I have seen that and it’s very cool but I don’t think there is any knowledge of how it works so that sucks :/ the reason this whole question came about is because I’ve seen people microwave a lit match in a glass container and it makes plasma. I was thinking if you could get the plasma to run up some glass tubing, out of the microwave and somehow propel the gas in a vortex like motion so it didn’t instantly disapate when it hit the air you would essentially have a plasma cannon.

 

[anorlunda]

Yes I have seen that and it’s very cool but I don’t think there is any knowledge of how it works so that sucks :/ the reason this whole question came about is because I’ve seen people microwave a lit match in a glass container and it makes plasma. I was thinking if you could get the plasma to run up some glass tubing, out of the microwave and somehow propel the gas in a vortex like motion so it didn’t instantly disapate when it hit the air you would essentially have a plasma cannon.

That is not nice of you to hide that information from us in the OP. It wastes our time because we have to guess what you are really asking about.

But with this information is sounds like you want to make something like a Star Wars blaster gun, correct?

 

[ZapperZ]

I still think, as CWatters pointed out above, that the OP has a severe misunderstanding of what "centripetal force" is. Unfortunately, he/she is not acknowledging this one way or the other. So it is really difficult to try and build an explanation when everyone is assuming that we all understand it the same way.

Zz.