tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3702007793204002314.post4114575199123831022..comments2012-09-02T11:10:10.895-07:00Comments on The Genial Griffin: More on Heat and Energy: Where is all the Hydrogen?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16427687322118498751noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3702007793204002314.post-10249752619607116872010-03-26T13:11:19.361-07:002010-03-26T13:11:19.361-07:00To add some clarity to the helium balloon note at ...To add some clarity to the helium balloon note at the end here is some interesting info:<br /><br />Hot air balloon...its more buoyant because its hot or because its lighter? Its because its lighter so the equivalent volume of hot air displaces less then the cool air..i.e. same volume less mass. Why is this true? The atoms have increased energy/velocity/kinetic energy, thus they push upon each other with greater vigor creating more volume ... and if you contain them then that area that has the air with increased temperature/energy has less mass...this is all because of the increased energy/velocity of the atoms.<br /><br />To take that further. if you cooled helium to the point that the kinetic energy of the molecules was sufficiently low would not float...again you could say its because its density is greater then air at that point, but the density is a byproduct of the average energy/velocity of the molecules/atoms.<br /><br />Helium rises because the average velocity is greater then the air. If you heat the heavy atom gold to the point that its vaporized at 2,856C its less dense per volume, and at some point if the individual atoms in a vaporized gold where hot enough/energetic enough/high enough velocity and contained in a balloon (assuming you could get a balloon to resist the heat and assuming you could keep the gold that hot, since it would tend to want to come back to the energy of its surroundings per zeroth law) the gold filled balloon would rise ostensibly because it was less dense then the air, but fundamentally because the energy of the atoms caused them to collide against each other and the container they where in with such great vigor they would take up greater volumeAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16427687322118498751noreply@blogger.com