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Old age or weather conditions

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alstorer View Drop Down
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    Posted: 24 Feb 15 at 7:08am
Originally posted by boatshed

Originally posted by alstorer

6.02x10^23 atoms/molecules/other of a substance.



As the chemistry joke goes "I don't trust atoms, they make up everything"
Pfft! The slightly vague description is because, eg, a mole of water contains three times as many atoms as a mole of helium. A a mole of common salt would be 6.02x10^23 sodium ions plus 6.02x10^23 chloride ions- thus "other".
-_
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Post Options Post Options   Quote sargesail Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Feb 15 at 12:16am
Agreed Clive.  The models/thinking tend to assume this generally horizontal, or at least consistently off horizontal flow where the reality on a cold, especially gusty day, and especially somewhere like BCYC with a steep sided dam and surrounding hills, then the breeze is moving in chunks (in MAtt's Vocab of Wind (no link I'm not a published author,'it's blowing chunks' - the allusion is deliberate).  Those chunks have much more vertical movement than normal breeze.

I like to classify gusts as rollers, movers, lines and splats.  A variety on splat is the bouncer which doesn't do a conventional splat fan and spread, but stops and starts on it's progress down the lake (you need a long lake and a good vantage point to see this effect).
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Post Options Post Options   Quote fab100 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Feb 15 at 10:49pm
Here's a different whacky theory Mr B...

Inland, some days the breeze is quite 'clean', relatively stable in strength and direction. My guess is that most of the air flow here is horizontal. Other days, the wind feels all chopped up, just all over the place; burgees spin and tell you the opposite to the tell-tales, the boat won't settle into a stable groove. My interpretation (FWIW) is that there is a significant element of mixing of the layers, with down drafts, up drafts etc.

In the latter case, it's virtually impossible to get the rig working efficiently, perfect trim in one bit of the sail is totally wrong on another. As a consequence, you work harder and the rig fights back; harmony and equilibrium just ain't gonna happen.

I reckon this is what you faced. Further, I'd wager that if you spoke to someone trying to trim an asymmetric kite in the same race, they'd say it was noticeably even more of a bitch of a job than usual.

On these days, I've been on a run in my laser and had the lower quarter of the sail blow up and back as if the wind was blowing out of the water and up at 45degrees from in front of me.
, whilst the rest was happy I was indeed on a run.

In Clive's vocabulary of wind this is called a "what the ****". 

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Post Options Post Options   Quote sargesail Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Feb 15 at 7:49pm
Steve,

As per my answer on the 300 site: you were cold (and old).
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Strangler View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Strangler Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Feb 15 at 4:15pm
The excellent Frank Singleton website will answer your question-
http://weather.mailasail.com/Franks-Weather/Weight-Of-Wind
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Steve411 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Feb 15 at 4:15pm
Originally posted by boatshed

Originally posted by alstorer

6.02x10^23 atoms/molecules/other of a substance.



As the chemistry joke goes "I don't trust atoms, they make up everything"

That's quite a good joke for a chemist.

Steve B
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boatshed View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Quote boatshed Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Feb 15 at 3:32pm
Originally posted by alstorer

6.02x10^23 atoms/molecules/other of a substance.



As the chemistry joke goes "I don't trust atoms, they make up everything"


Edited by boatshed - 23 Feb 15 at 3:33pm
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Post Options Post Options   Quote transient Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Feb 15 at 2:20pm
Originally posted by turnturtle


your rig gets wet, therefore it's heavier to handle?


the amount I capsize that's situation normal.

Molecular weight of water vapour is approx 18 g/mols
Molecular weight of dry air (average of it's components) is approx 29 g/mols


edit ....see above, Al posted same time as me, didn't see it.


Edited by transient - 23 Feb 15 at 2:24pm
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alstorer View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Quote alstorer Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Feb 15 at 2:15pm
Ignoring rain for now (because I can't answer that) lets go basic science.

Very roughly, a given quantity of gas molecules will occupy a set volume, regardless of what those molecules are- the elements and compounds in air generally behave close to an idea gas, so at a pressure of 1 atmosphere (1000mB, 29.53 inches of mercury) 1 mole* of gas occupies 24.465 litres at 25°C- or 1 litre of air contains 0.04 moles of gas- approximately 80% of this is Nitrogen, with a molecular weight of 28, and 20% is Oxygen, with a molecular weight of 32. A water molecule has a molecular weight of 18. Up to 5% of local atmosphere can be water vapour.

What I'm not sure is how all this applies. regardless of gas composition or temperature, 1 Pascal of pressure is 1 newton of Force on 1 square metre of area.




*not small furry mammals. 6.02x10^23 atoms/molecules/other of a substance. A useful unit when doing chemistry.

-_
Al
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Post Options Post Options   Quote maxibuddah Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Feb 15 at 1:44pm
That and your hands are cold and wet so don't work as well, appearing to make things feel heavier too
Everything I say is my opinion, honest
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