3 ms·
That's indeed an interesting perspective; I just double-checked in sane units: Standard pressure 101 325 N/m^2 divided by standard gravity 9.80665 N/kg gives t
by codeflo 14y ago
That's indeed an interesting perspective; I just double-checked in sane units:
Standard pressure 101 325 N/m^2 divided by standard gravity 9.80665 N/kg gives the mass of the air per area: 10 329 kg/m^2.
Divide that by an air density of 1.225 kg/m^3 to get a height of 8435 meters[1]. The Mount Everest is 8848 meters high. If the atmosphere were uniformly dense, the highest mountains would rise above it.
([1] Not in fact accurate to four digits because the constants I used aren't really constant across that height range.)
- eck 14y agoThanks, codeflo. I calculated similar numbers and only gave a very crude approximation but I will take your word for it. Obviously, with the thermal distribution according to altitude it's a poorly defined problem. Most intuitively, this means that when looking at some object on earth ~5 miles away, you are looking through roughly as much air as you are when looking at any given planet or star above you in the sky. I think this is an interesting comparison.