Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Over a period of time the gasses will evenly distribute but at first they will be stratified.  That is why smoke detectors and CO  detectors (combustion products) are supposed to be mounted on the ceiling and LPG detectors are mounted near the floor.

 

David LeBlanc <dleblanc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> If there's a heater running, you're going to have enough mixing from
> convection currents that I really don't think you're going to see a
> measurable difference in concentration at the top or the bottom.
>
> It's also true that when you have gasses that they will evenly distribute
> among a closed area, and it will do this independently of how much it
> weighs. If it worked the other way, our atmosphere would have all the CO2
> (48 g/mole) at the bottom, O2 (32 g/mole) next, and then N2
>  (28 g/mole)
> would all be at the top, with a little O3 and a few other things also at the
> bottom. Fortunately for us it doesn't, else this wouldn't be a very nice
> place to live. Gasses move from areas of higher concentration to lower, not
> by weight. It will also move around because of temperature difference, but
> in a trailer, it will go up, hit the cooler roof, then come back down.