Does air have mass?

Just a little question. Because I was thinking about it. Last November I asked Val to get me a large list from which I might acquire knowledge about what sorts of things she might be interested in getting for Christmas, and on the list was a small aquarium for her to take to the office. I thought that was a nice idea, and it was out of the ordinary, so I got one. Admittedly, it was not the one she sent me as a link. I took it upon myself to get one *I* thought she would like even better, but when it came it seemed bigger than the one she sent me, and overall, it was bigger than she wanted to take to the office. Isn't that how all men think...? If you like that one, you'll REALLY like this one... doh!!

It's a nice globe-shaped one, and I thought it was unique, and nice... silly me.

Anyway, we ended up keeping it at home - which brought up the problem of where to put it. Our house is not as big as we'd like it to be, so after careful consideration, we dicided on a spot on the landing between the home office and the master bedroom, but when it was plugged in, the little air pump made a bit of racket. I don't sleep all that soundly these days, and I was worried about the pump making too much noise and keeping me awake. The solution came on the form of a 25 foot peice of air hose that meant we were able to put the pump around the corner in the office, and it would be out of the way, and not making noise all night. Problem solved...

But then I was thinking, how much hose could one realistically put between the pump and the tank? I got to thinking about the little pump having to push air through that much more hose, and wondered if we were going to burn out the poor little pump.

So, how much hose it too much? How much air can it push through the little hose?

When I was doing the big pond outside last summer, I remember I had to do a very careful calculation regarding the pump for the waterfall and stream parts. I had to calculate how far the horizontal run was, and factor it in with the vertical rise as well, coming up with an acceptable "gallons per hour" number.

I know that water is by far heavier than air, as far as pumping goes. And I do know that air does indeed have mass and weight. It's just not something we think about everyday. For instance, we "zero" our scales to show "0" when there is nothing on them. But I also know that the speed of sound is slower at sea level, because there is more air "on top" of us there, as compared to the city of Denver, for example. That's why golf balls go farther in Denver than in San Diego.

Just stuff that makes you go, "...hmmm...."

I think of the stupidest things when I'm just staring off into space waiting to fall asleep...

:)