7.1.P2
The actual diameter of an atom is about a tenth of a nanometer (10-10 m). In order to develop some intuition for the molecular scale of a gas, assume that you are considering a liter of air (mostly N2 and O2) at room temperature and a pressure of one atmosphere -- 105 Pa.
- Calculate the number of molecules in the sample of gas.
- Estimate the average spacing between the molecules.
- Estimate the average speed of a molecule using the relation between the KE of a molecule and the temperature.
- Suppose that the gas were rescaled upwards so that each atom was the size of a tennis ball. What would be the average spacing between molecules?
Joe Redish 12/1/11
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