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onegumas t1_jccuui1 wrote

Reply to comment by mfb- in Radon is a monatomic gas, but its decay products are solids. After a decay, what happens to the individual atoms of the daughter elements? Do they stay suspended in the atmosphere or slowly rain out? by foodtower

Wait... But if there is a gravity a single atom in perfect vacuum will gradually lose (kinetic) energy and will "fall" on surface?

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mfb- t1_jcdb4p7 wrote

A single lead atom (or ion) still moves so fast that it's going to collide with some random side of the room with almost equal probability in vacuum. If the wall has the same temperature and the atom doesn't get stuck there then it has no reason to lose kinetic energy over time, although its energy will vary randomly from each collision. In practice lead atoms tend to stick to something pretty quickly at room temperature.

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