In microgravity, oil and water still won't mix, but they won't separate
the way they do under gravity. The reason they don't mix is because oil
has very low solubility in water. When you mix them vigorously, you get
what's called an emulsion- in this case very small droplets of oil
floating in the water. Unless you use special ingredients (as in mayo)
to maintain the emulsion, the droplets will separate because of their
buoyancy (which is meaningless in microgravity).
What I'd expect to happen in space is that the individual oil droplets
will gradually coalesce as they collide (a statistical process).
Eventually, you'll have a single blob of oil drifting around in (or on)
a single blob of water.
Chris
*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dave Harris" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "metlist" <meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Saturday, November 11, 2006 3:04 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Slightly OT...but sttill space related!
Hullo,
Well, I am a bit stumped by a question I was asked by one of my
sons...and I
couldn't answer it for certain - I've asked one chap, a good mate of
mine,
who has an astrophysics masters degree, and he proposed an answer to
my
query but I am not sure he's right...
SO, we all know that oil and water don't mix - the oil will float on
the
water. What about in zero-g?
Would they mix? (think how easy it'd be to make mayo!) or would they
still
separate out if shaken together?
It obviously has a relationship between certain meteorite classes (ie
mesos)
ie, whether molten silicates would float on molten iron...
but I just cannot visualise whether oil on water would still float.
Seems a really silly question now I;ve written it down - but nope,
just
cannot figure what an oil/water mix would do.
Any ideas (Bernd.....??)
Dumbly....
dave
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