Why airplanes taxi

writes:

Neither the atmosphere of the Earth nor the universe are infinite.

We don't know if they are infinite or not.

terry writes:

You see the fact that the volume of the atmophere or of space is
infinite is quite irrelvant because nobody wants to know what the
average density of the whole atmophere is ( which of course will
approach zero depending on your definition of where the atmsophere
actually ends).

It is very highly relevant. If you increase the temperature of the
atmosphere, for example, the pressure does not rise, because nothing
constrains the atmosphere--it simply expands. Atmospheric pressure comes from
gravity, which is a constant, and not from any constraints applied to the
volume of air, of which there are none. In the highest portions of the
atmosphere, the temperature rises to several thousand degrees, but the
pressure remains extremely low. At the surface, you might see variations in
absolute temperature of 1/3, but you won't see variations in pressure anywhere
near that magnitude.

WingFlaps writes:

So how do you explain the rather well known lapse rate?

It depends on which lapse rate you have in mind.

Solar heating at the surface produces a static temperature gradient, the
environmental lapse rate. Light to which the atmosphere is transparent is
absorbed at the surface and converted to heat. Part of this is reradiated,
but at lower frequencies that may be reflected or absorbed by the atmosphere,
the rest heats the air at the surface directly by conduction. So, overall,
the air is always warmest at the surface. There are some anomalies higher in
the atmosphere.

Parcels of air that rise in the atmosphere will cool as the pressure in the
atmosphere drops, and this is responsible the adiabatic lapse rate.

In both cases, the correlation is between temperature and altitude, not
temperature and pressure.

Mxsmanic wrote:
writes:

Neither the atmosphere of the Earth nor the universe are infinite.

We don't know if they are infinite or not.

Babbling nonsense.

Current estimates are the universe is about 160 billion light-years
in diameter.

If the universe isn't infinite, nothing in it can be either.



--
Jim Pennino

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Mxsmanic wrote:
terry writes:

You see the fact that the volume of the atmophere or of space is
infinite is quite irrelvant because nobody wants to know what the
average density of the whole atmophere is ( which of course will
approach zero depending on your definition of where the atmsophere
actually ends).

It is very highly relevant. If you increase the temperature of the
atmosphere, for example, the pressure does not rise, because nothing
constrains the atmosphere--it simply expands. Atmospheric pressure comes from
gravity, which is a constant, and not from any constraints applied to the
volume of air, of which there are none. In the highest portions of the
atmosphere, the temperature rises to several thousand degrees, but the
pressure remains extremely low. At the surface, you might see variations in
absolute temperature of 1/3, but you won't see variations in pressure anywhere
near that magnitude.

Nope.

The ideal gas law doesn't apply over the entire Earth's atmosphere
because the entire atmosphere isn't in equilibrium.

It does apply locally where equilibrium can be approximated.

In the highest portions of the atmosphere, the ideal gas law has
significant error because the molecular size becomes significant,
in which case one must use something like the van der Waals equation.


--
Jim Pennino

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In article , wrote:

If the universe isn't infinite, nothing in it can be either.

sure, if you constrain the question to 3-d, unless you consider something
infinitely small...

--
Bob Noel
(goodness, please trim replies!!!)

Mxsmanic wrote:
WingFlaps writes:

So how do you explain the rather well known lapse rate?

It depends on which lapse rate you have in mind.

Solar heating at the surface produces a static temperature gradient, the
environmental lapse rate. Light to which the atmosphere is transparent is
absorbed at the surface and converted to heat. Part of this is reradiated,
but at lower frequencies that may be reflected or absorbed by the atmosphere,
the rest heats the air at the surface directly by conduction. So, overall,
the air is always warmest at the surface. There are some anomalies higher in
the atmosphere.

Parcels of air that rise in the atmosphere will cool as the pressure in the
atmosphere drops, and this is responsible the adiabatic lapse rate.

In both cases, the correlation is between temperature and altitude, not
temperature and pressure.

Nope.

Air molecules don't have altimeters to tell them the altitude.

--
Jim Pennino

Remove .spam.sux to reply.

Mxsmanic wrote in
:

writes:

Neither the atmosphere of the Earth nor the universe are infinite.

We don't know if they are infinite or not.


I do, send me $25 and I'll tell you.

Bertie

Mxsmanic wrote in
news
terry writes:

You see the fact that the volume of the atmophere or of space is
infinite is quite irrelvant because nobody wants to know what the
average density of the whole atmophere is ( which of course will
approach zero depending on your definition of where the atmsophere
actually ends).

It is very highly relevant. If you increase the temperature of the
atmosphere, for example, the pressure does not rise, because nothing
constrains the atmosphere--it simply expands.

Wow, a truly magnificent lack of understanding of how weather works to add
to all the other dumb feathers in your tinfoil hat.

Bertie

Mxsmanic wrote in
:

WingFlaps writes:

So how do you explain the rather well known lapse rate?

It depends on which lapse rate you have in mind.


The one which states that as the temperature rises, the two molecules in
your head take a siesta.

Bertie