From: Raleigh McLemore (raleighmclemore@yahoo.com)
Date: Wed Jan 15 2003 - 20:16:59 PST
Message-ID: <20030116041659.63083.qmail@web40207.mail.yahoo.com> Date: Wed, 15 Jan 2003 20:16:59 -0800 (PST) From: Raleigh McLemore <raleighmclemore@yahoo.com> Subject: RE: Subject: CO2 partial pressure
Been a long time since I tried to understand the Gas
Laws, but Paul pointed me that away, so I got back
into the old chem books. It appeared to me that it is
the pressure of the CO2 that is key and it would flow
out of a balloon (which I filled primarily with CO2)
until the pressure of CO2 in the balloon was equal to
the pressure of CO2 in the air. Hmmmmmm. I never went
back to Paul, figured I had the answer, but I can
honestly say that I can't explain why this might be
so.
If I were a CO2 molecule, having been suddenly
produced inside a latex skin I can see that the
constant banging around inside the balloon might
eventually drive me through the skin. You see I
thought the atmospheric pressure was the key, but the
partial pressure of the "species" of gas as you
described it seemed to be the key.
So, whats up with that. I'm whizzing around, banging
into the other CO2 molecules and occasionally go
tearing through one of the many molecular holes in the
latex, where I immediately ram into a Nitrogen
molecule or some other fry of molecule. How the hell
do I (an eensy, teeny, CO2 molecule, fresh out of a
reaction) know how many of us CO2s should be outside,
much less whether I've hit a Nitrogen or something
else.
Sitting here thinking about bumper cars driving
randomly. Little bumper cars, big bumper cars, in a
big balloon. With lots of bumper cars outside the
balloon too. We all go bumping into each other and
occasionally we bump our way out of the balloon until
it all evens out. Good. Now imagine the balloon being
filled with little bumper cars only and the outside
having a mix. Why do the little bumper cars keep
exiting the balloon? Yikes!
I kind of thought I understood it when I was just
thinking of the overall banging around of gas
molecules, they whack each other until they are all
equally whacking each other, fine. When I try to
imagine the number of CO2 molecules sorting themselves
out to be equal in the balloon and out of the balloon
I'm confused. Being confused is an important part of
my daily routine, so this is something I enjoy about
my life, but I am also chagrined.
With firm handshake,
Raleigh
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