How do ceiling fans collect dust when they’re constantly in motion?
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The air moving over the blades actually creates a static electric charge. Like rubbing a balloon against a sweater, this creates an attractive force between the charged blades and dust in the air.
This build-up of static charge is the predominant effect causing the dust to collect over time.
There is something called boundary air that forms on the surface of an object traveling through air. The first few millimeters of air cling to the surface of the fan. This is why dust sticks to your car even if you’ve been driving down the highway.
The air is always full of dust. Air is pretty much always moving and picking up stuff like pollen, tiny bits of clothing, you naturally shedding your skin while you move about, things from your carpet, things that get caught in the air from it blowing around outside, even turning the page in a book creates dust. Movement can be said to cause dust. Unless you live in a clean chamber – the sort where they make computer chips – you will get dust.
If the fan is still, it collects dust pretty much the same way as any other surface will. Air moves around and moves dust with it and the dust settles on the fan blades.
If the fan is moving, the leading edge is moving fast through the air and will catch dust, that makes the surface bumpy and with bits that other bits of dust catch on to easily. That is why the leading edge gets dustier than the back.
When they are in constant motion, the leading edges of the blades will come in contact with dust more than any other part. Over time, the stickier of the particles will stick to it and then stick to other particles, repeat that over and over. The ceiling fan in my room goes nonstop. I stop it about once a month and clean it, and it definitely needs it.
When ever an item has an airflow over it, the moving air doesn’t actually flow across the surface, but across a thin layer of air that’s not really moving. Most dust gets sucked across that then layer of motionless air (relative to the blade in this case) but some particles basically slam through and into that zone and then stick and stay, protected by the boundary of the motionless and moving air just overhead.
put an old pillow case over the fan blades and wipe all the dust INTO the pillowcase and then dump the dust in the trash and wash the pillow case
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One possible explanation is that the blades of the ceiling fan may be slightly curved, which can cause dust to accumulate on them over time. Additionally, the air flow from the ceiling fan can create a small vortex that can pull dust particles from the surrounding area into the blades.
In Basic training we had to dust every single day and we all collected tons of it. Stuff is just filthy.
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