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Questions tagged [mean-free-path]

The average length that a molecule will travel in a fluid before colliding with another molecule.

4 votes
1 answer
549 views

What does ultra-rarefied gas mean?

Without using any math, can you explain to me what a rarefied gas is? And then what an ultra-rarefied gas is? I'd like to understand it from a conceptual level if you can make connections to other ...
Outsider's user avatar
  • 265
4 votes
0 answers
83 views

Which average are we taking in a rigorous calculation of the mean free path in a gas?

This is a question at one level beyond the standard introductions to kinetic theory. I want to know which average we are taking when we talk about a mean free path in a gas. I recently read Steve T. ...
Andrew Steane's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
233 views

Why is mean free path independent of mass?

In this page of Hyperphysics, I am puzzled as to why there isn't any mass dependence in the expressions for mean free path. Here are the two equations as mentioned in the website: When only one ...
Cathartic Encephalopathy's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
1k views

Why is the mean free path length of an electron in a solid described by a "universal curve"? (doesn't include electron density)

I've been experimenting with XPS (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy) and learned that the depth from which the observed electrons originated depends on their mean free path length, which makes sense to ...
Wihtedeka's user avatar
  • 2,068
1 vote
1 answer
1k views

How to calculate the free mean path of electrons in the gas mixture? [closed]

How to calculate the free mean path of electrons in the gas mixture? I understand (a little bit) the mean free path concept for the atomic collisions but I am not sure what to do if I am interested in ...
user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
486 views

What is the mean free path (MFP) of a Cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) photon?

If the IGM (inter-galactic medium) had a massive particle (proton) every cubic metre, or a carbon grain every cubic kilometre, what would be the MFP of a CMBR photon? The coherence length of the ...
barry's user avatar
  • 304
0 votes
1 answer
454 views

How can mean free path affect the propagation of sound in a gas?

I was thinking, since mean free path is a measure of "how long" a particle has to travel to collide with another, that this surely must influence sound propagation somehow. I would say this ...
Agnese's user avatar
  • 353
1 vote
1 answer
62 views

What does this equation represent?

While doing the Franck-Hertz experiment I noticed that I have been asked to write the current as a function of the Mean Free Path as following: $$ I=a\cdot e^{-\frac{b}{\lambda}}$$ I- current $\lambda$...
Sagigever's user avatar
  • 555
0 votes
0 answers
224 views

Franck Hertz experiment and the Mean Free Path

As part of my project in physics, I tried to repeat the franck hertz experiment, I did the same experiment with Neon and Mercury (the lengh between the catode and lattice is $5 mm$), I measured the ...
Sagigever's user avatar
  • 555
0 votes
2 answers
456 views

Infering the mean distance from density

A simple calculation surely but how we can infer the mean distance $l_{\text{mean}}$ between particles from their density $n$, i.e : $$l_{\text{mean}}=\left(\dfrac{1}{n}\right)^{1/3}$$ ? I tried to ...
user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
92 views

Monte Carlo approach to determining mean free path of Lévy dust

Problem statement I am trying to determine the mean free path $\lambda$ of a so-called Lévy dust, i.e. $M$ points in a square $L\times L$ environment with distances between subsequent points ...
Johannes Nauta's user avatar
1 vote
3 answers
752 views

In particle physics what is the derivation of the mean free path length: $\ell=\frac{1}{n \sigma}$?

From my lecture notes (ICL, dept. of Physics) it is written: Consider a thin piece of material with thickness $d$ containing target particles with number density $n$, as illustrated in Figure $\bf{2....
BLAZE's user avatar
  • 2,470
10 votes
4 answers
3k views

Do photons slow down this much in the Sun's gravitational field?

I just heard someone mention that photons take 40 thousand years to travel from the centre of the Sun to its surface which is roughly 700,000 kilometres. How is that possible if the speed of light/...
user avatar
-1 votes
1 answer
404 views

How to calculate the mean free time in Drude model?

According to Drude model, the average electron takes some time to go from one ion to another: this time is called mean free time. The problem is there isn't a satisfactory definition of this mean free ...
user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
369 views

Why does thermal conductivity decrease from solids to gases?

I am learning in my heat transfer class that the thermal conductivity decreases from solids to liquids to gases i.e. $$K_{solid} > K_{liquid}>K_{gas}$$ The reason cited is that (based on my ...
user avatar

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