<span>The lithosphere is mostly made of Earth's outer layer, the crust, and the upper portion of Earth's mantle. The asthenosphere is the upper part of Earth's mantle "which is also the middle layer of Earth".
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According to the kinetic theory, the mean free path is the average distance a single atom or molecule of an element or compound travels with respect with the other atoms during a collision. The greater the mean free path, the more ideal the behavior of a gas molecule is because intermolecular forces are minimum. To understand which factors affect the mean free path, the equation is written below.
l = μ/P * √(πkT/2m), where
l is the mean free path
μ is the viscosity of the fluid
P is the pressure
k is the Boltzmann's constant
T is the absolute temperature
m is the molar mass
So, here are the general effects of the factors on the mean free path:
Mean free path increases when:
1. The fluid is viscous (↑μ)
2. At low pressures (↓P)
3. At high temperatures (↑T)
4. Very light masses (↓m)
The opposite is also true for when the mean free path decreases. Factors that are not found here have little or no effect.
