Something doesn't make sense here. Turbulence is related to viscosity as far as ... | Hacker News

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		ars on Sept 13, 2012 \| parent \| context \| favorite \| on: WD Builds High-Capacity, Helium-Filled HDDs Something doesn't make sense here. Turbulence is related to viscosity as far as I know. Viscosity of air: 18.6 micropascal seconds. Viscosity of helium: 20.0. For comparison hydrogen is 9.0 and argon is 22.9. Actually - maybe a higher viscosity is better (it causes the turbulence to die out)? But in that case why not use argon? It's cheaper and a LOT easier to contain. Yet the article talks about light atoms?

aidenn0 on Sept 14, 2012 [–]

The turbulance is related to viscosity, but the force exerted on the drive head is related to turbulance and mass. The density of helium is an order of magnitude lower than the density of air.

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