Thursday, September 29, 2011

for Mr. Adams.

hello.

I just read this, and I figured I'd give you a detailed response. you can take it or leave it, but you can't change it ;)

anyways, you said this:

"Yes, the P-waves travel through a dense Plasma as through a liquid. Moreover Earth's magnetic field more easily flows through the Plasma than , say, liquid Iron.

Scientists suggest 6,000 to 9,000 degrees F. Vaporizing iron happens at a bit more than 5,000 degrees. (At the surface.)

I believe smashing atoms together is an inefficient method! I I suggest Ionizing, then the ions ride along EM force/field lines, Not unlike at the Van Allen belts. Here they crowd the lines"



well, since you clearly don't know what you are talking about, I'll be blunt:

no, that is impossible. here is why:


the Earth's outer core is in fact a liquid. I don't care what you think, it is. we who actually study this for a living know because of the properties of seismic waves. P waves will in fact change speed dramatically in the outer core (and deflect as a result), then accelerate in the inner core. and they will do so in such as a way as consistent with a liquid, and dense solid, respectively. S waves (secondary waves) do not travel through liquids, but will do so through solids.

and as you might guess based on that, S waves temporarily stop in the outer core, but resume in the inner core (though those S-waves are a result of P-wave activity there IIRC). here's a funky little graphic to show you what I mean (source below article):

http://www.daviddarling.info/images/seismic_waves_inside_Earth.jpg


now you are probably asking: "doesn't plasma work like a liquid?" short answer: no. Plasma is essentially superheated gas-what you find in the sun, or in a neon light-bulb. and being gas, P waves will have the amazing speed of fuck all. even when under-pressure, P waves will still be slower there than similarly pressured liquids.

and even if they were somehow identical, it's still not plasma down there, since while the temperature is correct, the pressure is simply too high. remember, plasma is superheated gas. treating as ideal, we can get an idea of why it would take to boil the iron first (the #1 element in the crust), by using the Clausius-Clapeyron relation-specifically this simplified version:


ln(Po/P) = DH/R (1/T - 1/To)

ln(Po/P): natural log of the surface pressure (760 torr (mmHg)- you want to use torr for the unit), over that of the outer core (hint: really really big number; the bigger it is, the bigger the natural log)
R = 8.314 J/mol-K (ideal gas constant)
To=boiling point at surface. in this case, 3134 K (or 2862 °C, or 5182 °F). you want to use K here-it's the official scientific notation for temperature (not fahrenheit..I'm not the one who designed the Systeme International-born too late for that).
DH: heat of vaporization: for iron it is: 349.60 kJ mol-1 (yeah, a lot; 34960 J/mol, in case you missed it)


and finally:

T=the temperature you want.

using that, you will get an answer for heat of vaporization, and believe me, it will be a lot more than the 4-6000 Celsius in the Earth's core. pressure's a bitch, isn't it?


now that we have established that the outer core (the source of the magnetic field) is a liquid, let us turn to the next problem: ion movement-the part in bold.

well, being made of Iron and nickel (mostly), it is in fact an excellent conductor. and since the inner core is solid, and does not generate electromagnetism, it can be treated as a vacuum. doing that, you start to see the outer core in terms of basics Physics II: a hollow conducting sphere. and here's where your idea goes to hell:

you see, while ions sure exist down there, they won't be riding the EMF lines any time soon. this is since it is an established property of hollow conducting spheres that the inside of a shell's layer (i.e. within the outer core, not the inner core-not that it matters, the answer will still be the same) has no charge or magnetism. the magnetism is in fact generated at the surface. so any ion generated in the outer core, cannot taxi on to any of the lines. in fact, the only way it can move up to the surface (where that would be possible) is by the convection of the outer core (it is liquid after-all). and even if it did ride to the top, it would still not be possible: the reason is because, and I know this may be novel to you-most people seem to not realize this anyhow-but ions have mass and volume. why? well, ions are simply charged versions of atoms. an example would be Fe2+ (the most common ion of iron down there; it's a reducing environment). this may not seem to matter, until you realize that there is a layer, laying right on top of the outer core, called the mantle. it's solid (in the sense of toffee) in it's lower parts, and so as a result, whatever ions do get there, will stop there; otherwise, ask yourself why we don't have a high level of Iron ions in our atmosphere. and they lack the force to do much about displacing the mantle-too low an acceleration, and even lower mass. This is especially as any force that would be generated would be negated by the massive pressure from above (pressure is simple Force/Area). yeah, I know, Pressure is a bitch.

in short: no, there is no way any of the above mechanisms you posted in this comment would work for conditions inside the Earth.

and sorry, but the expanding Earth is just not possible either. Physics just doesn't allow for it to happen-wrong material, temperature, and size.













Neil Adam's comments can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epwg6Od49e8&feature=related

http://www.daviddarling.info/childrens_encyclopedia/Dig_a_Hole_to_China_Chapter1.html
and you can always hit Wikipedia for the properties of iron.

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