Re: [APD] CO2 Experiment #2

[Jerry Baker <jerry at bakerweb_biz>]

David Aiken wrote:
> In a sterile bucket such as that used in your experiment we  
> don't have supersaturation with O2, and nitrogen is much more  
> insoluble in water than either O2 or CO2 so what basis do you have  
> for assuming that there's any nitrogen exchanging out? It seems to me  
> that there's a lot of assumption going on here.

There is some assumption, but assumption does not mean incorrect. If 
someone tells us that they dropped something, we assume it fell to the 
ground (or whatever horizontal surface interrupted the fall). We do not 
need to verify that the object indeed did fall. We know from prior 
experience and knowledge of how gravity works that an object dropped 
will fall.

Along those same lines we know that diffusion will occur at an air/water 
boundary where the the partial pressure of any gas is not equal. We do 
not have to check if this is happening. What we don't know is to what 
extent it is occurring.

> Is the next step going to be claims that the gas collected contained  
> x,y & z, with no testing whatsoever to determine that is the case,  
> simply because the assumptions have been repeated so often by then  
> that everyone is starting to believe them?

See above.

> You're collecting bubbles of unknown content, and you're bubbling in  
> close to pure CO2. You have no evidence at this stage for what the  
> collected gas contains. Let's try to keep it scientific and dispense  
> with the assumptions. If you want to say what has been collected, get  
> the gas analysed and tell us the results.

There is not only evidence of what the gas contains, but good scientific 
laws and theory behind the fact that it will contain any and all of the 
gases that are present in the water. What is in question is not what 
gases are present, but in what amounts.

-- 
Jerry Baker
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