ECHOES OF THE LAST MIND

ORIGIN: https://www.yourweather.co.uk/news/

A century-old mathematical equation predicting the movement of air pollutants only worked for perfectly spherical particles, until a recent update.

The air is a mix of microscopic particles like soot, dust and pollen, but also viruses, microplastics and synthetic nanoparticles. Image: Adobe.

The air is filled with millions of microscopic particles like soot, dust and pollen, but also viruses, microplastics and synthetic nanoparticles. Many of these particles are irregularly shaped, but a century-old equation predicting their behaviour assumes these toxic particles are perfect spheres.

A University of Warwick researcher has reworked this equation to give a simple and predictive way to calculate how dangerous air pollutants move through air.

Out with the old…

Current mathematical models assume airborne nanoparticles are perfect spheres because this makes it easier to predict how they will behave. But this doesn’t reflect the real-world movement of hazardous non-spherical particles.

Professor Duncan Lockerby from the School of Engineering at Warwick has reworked the 100-year-old formula to give a simple way to predict how irregular particles move, bridging a key gap in aerosol science.

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