We think that air will rush to fill a vacuum, so why doesn’t the atmosphere fly off into space?

It makes a lot more sense if you think of it in terms of individual molecules of gas bouncing around. Gravity pulls them all downwards, but they end up bouncing off each more and more, creating air pressure. The pressure is a result of the air being pulled down, so there’s actually no force at all that would “pull” it into space.

Why Does the Atmosphere Not Fly off into the Vacuum of Space?
Discussion in ‘Flat Earth’ started by Mick West, Oct 31, 2018.

One of the great things about “Flat Earth” theory is that it provides some great opportunities for thinking about, investigating, and explaining a variety of basic science concepts. …

Let’s say the universe contained nothing at all except for some gas molecules. Since molecules are really just like tiny little objects they behave like other objects would in space. The gas molecules would just move in straight lines, not changing direction unless they happened to collide with each other. The universe would just continue like this, gas molecules moving around. …

So suppose we add a planet into the mix? How would that change things?

Suddenly our universe has a strong gravity well. All the nearby gas molecules are attracted down to the planet, so they tend to move in that direction. Now adding a planet like that has created a whole bunch of potential energy, so things speed up and slosh around for a bit (see video, above). But eventually they settle down.

What do we find? The planet has acquired an atmosphere! No only that, but it’s one where the density of the atmosphere decreases as you get higher. Most of the molecules near the planet’s surface are bouncing around, colliding with each other, and colliding with the objects around them. It’s those collisions that make air pressure. …

So we can see that there’s no reason for the atmosphere to fly off into space. All of the atmosphere is being pulled down towards the planet. The only reason why air rushes to fill a vacuum down on earth is because the molecules are bouncing around so much they just fill up any empty space.

Why the Atmosphere Does Not Fly off into Space

Mick West

Published on Oct 30, 2018

Escaping the Rabbit Hole:  https://amzn.to/2PhqdYm

We think that air will rush to fill a vacuum, so why doesn’t the atmosphere fly off into space?

It makes a lot more sense if you think of it in terms of individual molecules of gas bouncing around. Gravity pulls them all downwards, but they end up bouncing off each more and more, creating air pressure. The pressure is a result of the air being pulled down, so there’s actually no force at all that would “pull” it into space.

Discussion Thread on Metabunk: https://www.metabunk.org/why-does-the…