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To: Signalman
Sort of on topic question.......

What percentage of world water is present in vapor form within the atmosphere in ratio to the amount condensed or precipitated out and is in bodies of water or in the ground sysyem?

Al Gore will argue that it's just a matter of time until the skies open up, which Australia has been the first to experience as we've witnessed. It's right there in front of your eyes. The sea levels are rising, but much higher than the sea.

I'm not of that theory, but that will be their answer.

4 posted on 03/28/2011 10:50:04 AM PDT by blackdog (The mystery of government is not how Washington works but how to make it stop)
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To: blackdog
What percentage of world water is present in vapor form within the atmosphere in ratio to the amount condensed or precipitated out and is in bodies of water or in the ground sysyem?

Wikipedia (yes, I know the warnings) lists water as averaging 0.4% of the air and the total mass of the atmosphere as 5.1480×10^18 kg. Spread evenly over the entire surface of the earth that would be about 1.5 inches of water.

Copy this into google to see my calculation: 5.1480×10^18 kg * 0.4% * 1 (liter/kg) / (4 * pi * (4000 miles)^2) in inches

Another wiki page lists the mass of the oceans as 1.4×10^21 kg, so the atmospheric water is 0.0015% of the oceans' mass. That's somewhat in error because I didn't take into account ocean water's salt content.

(After doing that calculation I realized that wiki listed the atmospheric content by volume rather than by mass. Since water has a molecular weight of 18 compared to 28 and 32 for nitrogen and oxygen, I overstated the weight and final depth by about one third).

17 posted on 03/28/2011 12:04:18 PM PDT by KarlInOhio (Washington is finally rid of the Kennedies. Free at last, thank God almighty we are free at last.)
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