science question

[paperclippy]

Are air molecules bigger than water molecules? I know nothing about air. What I'm trying to figure out is how I can possibly have air bubbles trapped inside a tea bag. Water passes through the teabag, so why doesn't the air come out? My teabag is floating with a big fat air bubble in it.

Comments

[jwgh]

The teabag's wet, so what's trapping the air isn't so much the teabag itself as the water filling the holes in the teabag. (Air can enter and exit a dry teabag with ease.) In order for the air to escape it would have to exert more force via its pressure and buoyancy than is exerted by the water's surface tension, I think.

[paperclippy.livejournal.com]

Thanks! That does make a lot of sense.

air molecule

[(Anonymous)]

Air is a mixture of mostly O_2 and N_2 with assorted other stuff

http://education.jlab.org/glossary/abund_atmos.html

so it doesn't make sense to talk about a "molecule of air" without specifying which component of air you are talking about. In any case, I'm not sure why the air becomes trapped, but the surface tension explanation seems reasonable enough.

SB