• intensely_human@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    7 months ago

    The term “mean free path” sounds a lot like an average to me, implying an distribution which extends beyond that number.

    • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      7 months ago

      One cubic centimeter of air contains 90,000,000,000,000 atoms. In that context, mean free path is 68nm up to the limits of your ability to measure. That is flip a coin 90 million million times and average the heads and tails. It’s going to be extremely close to 50%.

      Not to mention that at 5ghz, the sound can only propagate 68 nm.