THE FIRST FACT:
The grain of dust you see floating in a window's sun beam is halfway in size between the planet Earth and a subatomic particle (anything smallerthan an atom).
UNAVOIDABLE DUST:
It's 1,500 motes of dust in a typical cubic inch of air, even air that's considered to be "clean." Human lungs take in about 14,000 quarts of air daily, and contained in those 14,000 quarts of air are about a billion and a half particles of dust. One of the major components of house dust is micoscopic flakes of human skin. You inhale about 700,000 of your own skin flakes daily.
What is Dust, and where soes it come from?
It's salt from the sea; it's single-celled diatoms that live in the oceans; it's smoke from forest fires and ashes from volcanoes; it's bacteria, viruses, fungus spores, mold, pollen, and insect parts. About half of the dust that floats around in the air is a result of human activities, such as agriculture, industry, and transportation.
WORD ORIGINS: The German word "dunst," meaning vapor, gives us our word "DUST." The word "DIRT" comes from the Old Norse "drit," meaning excrement. "Manure" and "maneuver" have the same origin: the Old French word "manoeuvrer" means to till the soil or to work by hand.
THE IMPORTANCE OF DUST...
Moisture in the atmosphere condenses as it cools. However, the water must condense on something that it can cling to. Dust serves that purpose. In air that contains absolutely no dust, droplets would simply bounce off each other and would not condense intil the atmosphere reached an incredible 300 percent humidity. if you were to walk into such an enviroment, you would be instantly soaked as the moisture condensed upon you. Every single drop of rain and snow that falls cotains a piece of dust, so precipitation really does "clean" the air.
You can join Unsolved Mysteries and post your own mysteries or
interesting stories for the world to read and respond to Click hereScroll all the way down to read replies.Show all stories by Author:  34810 ( Click here )
Spring is coming |
