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Chemical Potentials, Atmosphere, and Soda

1. Chemical potential practice. The chemical intrinsic potential of an ideal gas is:


int = kB T ln n3T

(1)

with n the density and

h
T =
2mkB T

(2)

the thermal de-Broglie wave-length.

The total chemical potential is simply = int +EP , with Ep the potential energy. By assuming that the atmosphere
has uniform temperature, and is at equilibrium ( is the same everywhere), what is the atmospheric pressure as a
function of altitude?
If you feel like it, assume the atmosphere is made of a single gas with mef f = 28.8mp .
2. Could you estimate how hard (i.e., how fast) should we shake a soda can to create bubbles? For simplicity assume
an open can of coke, so p = 1Atm, but with the CO2 content matching saturated solution for pD = 4Atm. For
these parameters, and = 0.075N/m surface tension coefficient for sugar-water, the (Gibbs Free) energy barrier is
5 1013 J, and the bubble size at the free-energy peak is about 1m. For the sake of estimation assume that free
energy and actualy energy are interchangeable.