10 Jun
2007
10 Jun
'07
8:29 a.m.
Chuck Guzis wrote:
On 9 Jun 2007 at 21:43, jd wrote:
As Guy Sotomayor mentioned in another post, nitrogen was used in the disk.
IIRC, helium costs less than argon. There's something else about argon that
makes it undesireable as an inert gas except for welding. What that is I do not
know.
Nitrogen costs even less than helium--depending on the purity. I wondered why
helium would be used instead of nitrogen. Just assumed that perhaps there would
be too much of a reaction with the media or something else to be tolerable.
I do recall some computer equipment that had helium in the enclosure. At least
that's what the labels said.
==
Real computer scientists despise the idea of actual hardware. Hardware
has limitations, software doesn't. It's a real shame that Turing
machines are so poor at I/O.
> Helium is a very good thermal conductor but I
would suspect that
it is used
because it is cleaner and dryer than air and
nitrogen and truly inert and won't
chemically react with the medium. The helium was likely under pressure to reduce
the chance of air getting in. Since it can leak out much faster than nitrogen
and air, thanks to the physics of helium, the seals and sealing surfaces must be
in excellent condition. But no matter how good the seal, helium still leaks out
so it needs to be replenished from time to time.
So why wasn't another noble gas used, such as argon? I don't doubt
that helium might have been used, but I don't understand why.