Thanks, everybody.
I realize that most of you have day jobs and don't have time to be teachers in my self-designed Elder-Hostel Education program, but if you do have a moment, could you answer the following questions? In these questions, the words "cool" and "warm" will have a technical meaning: "cooler and warmer than layers of air at the same altitude." This is to take account of adiabatic cooling and warming. Other things being equal, 100 degree air mass in ABQ will only be 85 in Santa Fe, but, in my sense of the term, the two have the same "warmness". If somebody has a better term for two air masses that have an "adiabatically equivalent temperature", I would love it. By the way, by "balloon" I think I have to mean a weightless sealed expandable enclosure. (1) Fill a balloon with oxygen; put it in a sealed vessel full of nitrogen, releasing enough nitrogen from the bottom of the vessel to compensate for the mass of the oxygen. Will the balloon sink or float? (2) Through the top of a vessel full of nitrogen, introduce gently a volume of oxygen, releasing enough nitrogen from the bottom to compensate for the mass of the introduced oxygen. Will the oxygen, remain on the surface, distribute itself through the nitrogen, or sink to the bottom? (3) Perform operation #1, introducing a balloon full of cool air into the top of a vessel containing air that is warm. Will the balloon sink or float? (4) Perform operation #2, gently introducing a volume of cool air into the top of a vessel full of warm air. Will the cool air, remain on the surface, distribute itself through the warm air, or sink to the bottom? (5) Perform operation #1, introducing a balloon full of dry air into the top of a vessel containing air that is moist (air with water vapor [mixed][dissolved] in it). Will the balloon sink or float? (6) Finally, perform operation #2, gently introducing a volume of dry air into the top of a vessel containing air that is moist (air with water vapor [mixed][dissolved] in it. Will the dry air, remain on the surface, distribute itself through the moist air, or sink to the bottom? I realize as I wrote these that the words change meaning in subtle ways as one moves from environment to environment. To say that a molecule is "cool" is to describe it's behavior, not its identity. A similar confusion lurks in calling air "moist". In case you are curious, this all to do with elevated mixing levels which are implicated in tornado formation. To put it bluntly, what holds an elevated mixing level up until it's needed to cause a tornado? Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology Clark University http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ http://www.cusf.org <http://www.cusf.org/>
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