• Physics Thought Experiment
    3 replies, posted
This is a question I thought of some time ago, and it's been bugging me for a while Consider this diagram while reading the explanation below it: [img]http://filesmelt.com/dl/A_Thought_Experiment.png[/img] Now here's the idea: Situation A: You have a normal grinder, consisting basically of a motor attached to a coarse wheel with an on/off switch inside a housing. If you put a piece of aluminum against it while it's spinning, the grinding wheel will remove large chunks of atoms (aluminum shavings), and they will accumulate in a small pile (and will inevitably have to be cleaned up later). Perfectly normal. Situation B: You have an advanced Quantum grinder. It grinds away the material atom-by-atom (it does not add any heat to the aluminum atoms being removed). However, it grinds at the same rate. So if you were to hold up a piece of aluminum to both grinders for the same amount of time and at the same pressure, you would have the same amount of mass ground off and the same length of the rod removed. However, the product from the normal grinder would just be a pile of aluminum dust, whereas the product from the Quantum grinder would be a stream of aluminum atoms. Here's the question. We know that the product from the normal grinder is just going to be a pile of aluminum dust. However, what happens to the product from the Quantum grinder? Does it collect as some odd liquid? Does it dissipate into the atmosphere? Does it collect into a pile of very fine aluminum dust? What do you think happens? Feel free to add any links or diagrams that you think will be helpful in your explanation.
I would imagine that this would effectively be vapourising the Aluminium. However if you were to collect the products in a jar, you might just end up with a whole bunch of Aluminium oxide / Aluminium metal and vapour. I don't think metals enjoy existing as discrete atoms (and Aluminium is particularly reactive), so assuming that you could pull it apart atom by atom, it would probably react with its environment or reform metallic bonds immediately. Interesting question, I have no idea what would happen if you did this in a vacuum... (probably just exist as a vapour?) But that's my two cents!
[QUOTE=Little Green;26499776]I would imagine that this would effectively be vapourising the Aluminium. However if you were to collect the products in a jar, you might just end up with a whole bunch of Aluminium oxide / Aluminium metal and vapour. I don't think metals enjoy existing as discrete atoms (and Aluminium is particularly reactive), so assuming that you could pull it apart atom by atom, it would probably react with its environment or reform metallic bonds immediately. Interesting question, I have no idea what would happen if you did this in a vacuum... (probably just exist as a vapour?) But that's my two cents![/QUOTE] Interesting answer. I forgot about how reactive aluminum is. What do you think would happen with a much les reactive metal?
[QUOTE=wildferret82;26500568]Interesting answer. I forgot about how reactive aluminum is. What do you think would happen with a much les reactive metal?[/QUOTE] Well depending on the metal, it would probably react and form a metal, but since individual atoms are so small you would need a whole ton of the atoms to actually be able to see anything. And I agree with Little Green that if you carried this out in a vacuum, it would probably just exist as very small particles floating around.
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