A new book on the UFO, Alien Hoax

[The Equalizer]

Hermit, maybe you should start a thread just on gravity, anti-gravity and levity? It would be good fun Newton and the apple is all very well, but he was a Rosicrucian bollox and it is prudent to take his stuff with a grain of organic sea salt, IMHO.

What happens to the helium released from all the balloons? I can understand that it is lighter than air, so obviously it will rise above the air, even with gravity.

Does that mean that there is a band of helium sitting on top of the air on the planet?

MAF, I think I can grasp the idea of the air/vacuum border zone being wide - lots of air molecules on the earth side, and very little on the space side.

What are the measurements on that? How far up is total vacuum, how far is just low density air?

It is precisely the border area where I can't grasp what's happening. Is it gravity that stops the air molecules in the border zone from spinning off into the vacuum?

Does the earth ever lose any air molecules to the vacuum?

Yes, they can and do. If they have escape velocity.

The same speed a rocket has to reach to be successfully sent into orbit, or the spaceship it was attached to.

If gravity is some sort of electrical charge, then it starts to make sense. The air molecules don't go into the vacuum because of the electrical charge that connects them to other air molecules below them.

The idea that gravity from the earth 100km below is enough to stop an air molecule heading for the vacuum nearby seems wrong.

It's all about overcoming Earth's gravity

 

[Tiger]

It feels like this discussion has gone way off topic.

Look at the OP and thread title.