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Re: Density of gas mixture



Too many facts, too early for synthesis. Students should not be
encouraged to make great leaps into the unknown if it is clear in
advance that they will be unable to learn anything other than the
trite "physics is hard". It is like broadjumping in a dense fog in
unfamiliar territory.

Certainly students can be exposed to this delightful counterintuitive
factoid (and its explanation) as soon as they encounter the ideal gas
model. The isothermal atmosphere and the more realistic adiabatic
atmosphere must wait until they are sophomores in college, and
modelling the temperature profile even more realistically is not
within the compass of even most postgraduate physics programs; it is
a specialist's topic.

See the "Standard Atmosphere" tables and graphs in the rubber bible.

Leigh