I’m thinking of my middle school science class where the teacher opened a bottle of butyric acid and within a second everyone in the room could smell it even though the air was still. It made our whole school reek for weeks.
I remember being shocked at how quickly the smell traveled. How does that happen?
In: 5
Air is basically always moving and running into things. You might not feel it because the motion is inconsistent and random, as opposed to a breeze that blows **all** the air molecules in an area in the same direction at a similar speed.
Consider that if you sucked the air out of an empty plastic water bottle, it would instantly crumple inwards. What is causing the force to crush the bottle, other than the air molecules that are constantly hitting the outside of the bottle? Once you suck the air out from inside, there is an imbalance of force on the outside air molecules pushing inwards and the inside air molecules pushing outward; this imbalance crushes the bottle. Therefore, there must a ton of air molecules hitting everything all the time.
This is what causes air pressure (or fluid pressure in general) and enables other gaseous molecules like butyric acid to diffuse rapidly through a space.
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