Assume two liquids of different density stacked on top of each other. Or, assume a ballon filled helium gas, in our atmosphere.
1. Why does the lighter fluid “go up”? How does this work out on a molecular level?
2. What would happen when these fluids in free fall, I.E not under the influence of gravity?
In: 8
I’ll give it a shot.
Best way I found to understand it was by imagining the molecules as being hyperactive when at higher (relative) temperatures. When someone is crazy and bouncing around off everything, you need to give them more space.
So (generally) the density goes down as the energy levels go up. Water is strange, it’s most dense at 4 degrees C, and it’s solid state is less dense than it’s fluid state, but I digress.
So that’s independent of gravity. Under gravity, fluids/gasses with greater density, experience higher gravitational pull than less dense fluids or gasses, that’s why they “go up” relative to less energetic matter. (Ignoring diffusion)
If we were in microgravity, then the fluid with the highest density would be pulled into the middle of the floating sphere and the less dense ones would be on the exterior. For example if we had a huge amount of oil and water in space, the oil would surround the water in these conditions due to its lower density relative to water.
Edit : Amounts of oil and water in microgravity must be very large to exert any significant gravitational forces to separate based on density.
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