In: Physics
For the earth, a reasonable estimate of the variation of pressure with altitude can be made for a gas of molecular weight, M, assuming the atmosphere is isothermal, the variation of g with altitude is negligible, and that the atmosphere behaves like an ideal gas.
(a) Under these assumptions how does the pressure vary with altitude in terms of the altitude, y, molecular weight of the gas, M, gas temperature, T, and appropriate constants?
(b) How does the number density of molecules vary with altitude? The number density of air molecules at sea level at 20 o C is roughly 3 x 1019/cm3 .
(c) If the effective diameter of air molecules is 2 x 10-8 cm, at what altitude is the mean free path of an air molecule 10-4 cm?