06-06-2006, 05:08 PM
Quote:It is then alarming to me that people have assumed that the core of the earth is a superhot heavy solid. Would it not be more logical to predict that it would be a super COLD light GAS instead? That would make all that magma above it actually make a lot more sense...
Not at all. The pressure at the center of the earth is incredibly high because there's a planet on top of it, the fluid is forced to become a solid.
The same idea is taken advantage when a valve is physically placed at a lower elevation to eliminate flashing and cavitation -- the lower elevation increases the pressure head, which lowers the temperature at which the liquid moving through the pipe turns to gas, eliminating cavitation.