Atmospheric Retention Lab
Worksheet
Enter your answers to each question in the data tables and yellow highlighted areas below.
When completed, please save the file and attach it to the Atmospheric Retention Lab
Assignment in Canvas.
This lab is adapted from the Nebraska Astronomy Applet Project. If document links are
broken, you can find all necessary pages from this site: http://astro.unl.edu/naap/
atmosphere/atmosphere.html
PRELAB QUESTIONS
1. Imagine that asteroid A has an escape velocity of 50 m/s. If asteroid B has twice the mass
and twice the radius, it would have an escape velocity _the same as_ the escape velocity
of asteroid A. (4 times, twice, the same as, half, or one-fourth)
2. Complete the table below by using the Projectile Simulator (link also in instructions) to
determine the escape velocities for the following objects. Since the masses and radii are
given in term of the Earth’s, you can easily check your values by using the mathematical
formula for escape velocity.
Mass Radius vesc (km/s) vesc (km/s)
Object
(MEarth) (REarth) simulation calculation
(0.38) ( s )
(0.055) km km
Mercury 0.055 0.38 4.3 km/s 11.2 = 4.3
s
√(15)/(4.0) (11.2 km/s) = 21.67=
Uranus 15 4.0 21.7 km/s
21.7 km/s
√(0.015)/(0.30) (11.2 km/s) =
Io 0.015 0.30 2.5 km/s
2.5 km/s
√(0.00005)/(0.083) (11.2 km/s)
Vesta 0.00005 0.083 0.3 km/s
= 0.275= 0.3 km/s
√(100)/(10) (11.2 km/s) = 35.4
Krypton 100 10 35.4 km/s
km/s
3. Experiment with the Maxwell Distribution Simulator (link also in instructions). Then
a. Draw a sketch of a typical gas curve below,
This study source was downloaded by 100000850872992 from CourseHero.com on 02-19-2023 07:43:34 GMT -06:00
https://www.coursehero.com/file/29270068/Atmospheric-Retention-Lab/
, b. Label both the x-axis and y-axis appropriately,
c. Draw in the estimated locations of the most probable velocity vmp and average velocity
vavg, and
d. Shade in the region corresponding to the fastest 3% of the gas particles.
EXERCISE
A. Gas Retention Simulator
Open the Gas Retention Simulator. Begin by familiarizing yourself with the capabilities of the
gas retention simulator through experimentation.
• The gas retention simulator provides you with a chamber in which you can place
various gases and control the temperature. The dots moving inside this chamber
should be thought of as tracers, where each represents a large number of gas particle.
The walls of the chamber can be configured to be a) impermeable so that they always
rebound the gas particles, and b) sufficiently penetrable so that particles that hit the
wall with velocity over some threshold can escape. You can also view the distributions
of speeds for each gas in relation to the escape velocity in the Distribution Plot panel.
• The lower right panel entitled gases allows you to add and remove gases in the
experimental chamber. The lower left panel is entitled chamber properties. In its
default mode it has allow escape from chamber unchecked and has a temperature of
300 K. Click start simulation to set the particles in motion in the chamber panel.
This study source was downloaded by 100000850872992 from CourseHero.com on 02-19-2023 07:43:34 GMT -06:00
https://www.coursehero.com/file/29270068/Atmospheric-Retention-Lab/
Worksheet
Enter your answers to each question in the data tables and yellow highlighted areas below.
When completed, please save the file and attach it to the Atmospheric Retention Lab
Assignment in Canvas.
This lab is adapted from the Nebraska Astronomy Applet Project. If document links are
broken, you can find all necessary pages from this site: http://astro.unl.edu/naap/
atmosphere/atmosphere.html
PRELAB QUESTIONS
1. Imagine that asteroid A has an escape velocity of 50 m/s. If asteroid B has twice the mass
and twice the radius, it would have an escape velocity _the same as_ the escape velocity
of asteroid A. (4 times, twice, the same as, half, or one-fourth)
2. Complete the table below by using the Projectile Simulator (link also in instructions) to
determine the escape velocities for the following objects. Since the masses and radii are
given in term of the Earth’s, you can easily check your values by using the mathematical
formula for escape velocity.
Mass Radius vesc (km/s) vesc (km/s)
Object
(MEarth) (REarth) simulation calculation
(0.38) ( s )
(0.055) km km
Mercury 0.055 0.38 4.3 km/s 11.2 = 4.3
s
√(15)/(4.0) (11.2 km/s) = 21.67=
Uranus 15 4.0 21.7 km/s
21.7 km/s
√(0.015)/(0.30) (11.2 km/s) =
Io 0.015 0.30 2.5 km/s
2.5 km/s
√(0.00005)/(0.083) (11.2 km/s)
Vesta 0.00005 0.083 0.3 km/s
= 0.275= 0.3 km/s
√(100)/(10) (11.2 km/s) = 35.4
Krypton 100 10 35.4 km/s
km/s
3. Experiment with the Maxwell Distribution Simulator (link also in instructions). Then
a. Draw a sketch of a typical gas curve below,
This study source was downloaded by 100000850872992 from CourseHero.com on 02-19-2023 07:43:34 GMT -06:00
https://www.coursehero.com/file/29270068/Atmospheric-Retention-Lab/
, b. Label both the x-axis and y-axis appropriately,
c. Draw in the estimated locations of the most probable velocity vmp and average velocity
vavg, and
d. Shade in the region corresponding to the fastest 3% of the gas particles.
EXERCISE
A. Gas Retention Simulator
Open the Gas Retention Simulator. Begin by familiarizing yourself with the capabilities of the
gas retention simulator through experimentation.
• The gas retention simulator provides you with a chamber in which you can place
various gases and control the temperature. The dots moving inside this chamber
should be thought of as tracers, where each represents a large number of gas particle.
The walls of the chamber can be configured to be a) impermeable so that they always
rebound the gas particles, and b) sufficiently penetrable so that particles that hit the
wall with velocity over some threshold can escape. You can also view the distributions
of speeds for each gas in relation to the escape velocity in the Distribution Plot panel.
• The lower right panel entitled gases allows you to add and remove gases in the
experimental chamber. The lower left panel is entitled chamber properties. In its
default mode it has allow escape from chamber unchecked and has a temperature of
300 K. Click start simulation to set the particles in motion in the chamber panel.
This study source was downloaded by 100000850872992 from CourseHero.com on 02-19-2023 07:43:34 GMT -06:00
https://www.coursehero.com/file/29270068/Atmospheric-Retention-Lab/
