Theatmosphere is a giant sedimentation equilibrium experiment.Nitrogen and oxygen are pulled down by the gravitational potential,and diffuse back upwards due to entropy. Assuming the earth’sgravitational acceleration is uniform and 9.802 m s–2, and theaverage temperature of the atmosphere is –20°C, and the pressure ofN2 and O2 at sea-level are 0.79 and 0.20 bar respectively,calculate the pressure of nitrogen and oxygen at the elevation of atransatlantic airplane flight (10 km).
