On Sat, Nov 22, 2014 at 11:48 PM, Bruce Kellett <bhkell...@optusnet.com.au> wrote:
> I think the answer probably lies in the fact that the situation described > is not stable -- the system is not in thermal equilibrium. As stated, the > gas at the top of the column tends to be cooler because of the higher > gravitational potential. But again, as Brent points out, the warmer gas at > the bottom tends to rise, so convection currents act to counter the > gravitational potential difference. Could I use those convection currents to turn a windmill that powers a electric generator and get work out of it? > > the system never reaches a stable equilibrium. > Does that mean that the convection currents and my generator will never stop? Obviously not although I confess it's not immediately clear to me why not. John K Clark -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
