I recently started reading Richard Feynmans 'six easy pieces'. I did physics and chemistry combined in secondary school but that was 3 years ago and thought it would be a nice introduction back into it.
It's been really interesting so far but I've a question about a statement made on page 12/13.
The statement is referring to water in a vessel and is as follows: '…oxygen and nitrogen molecules will work their way into the water and the water will contain air. If we suddenly take the air away from the vessel, then the air molecules will leave more rapidly than they came in, and in doing so will make bubbles…''
I dont find this very intuitive. Cause from my naive perspective bubbles in water are air and if we removed the air how would any bubbles remain. Never mind create them.
I'd really appreciate someone maybe rephrasing this or expanding on it so maybe I could get a better grasp of the idea.
Thanks 🙂
Best Answer
Basically, oxygen and nitrogen, like carbon dioxide, are soluble in water. The higher the pressure in the water, the more soluble they are.
Remove the pressure and they come out of solution, in the form of bubbles.
Remove air from a closed vessel and the pressure will drop. So bubbles will form. The behavior with oxygen and nitrogen is exactly the same as with soda pop when you open the can.