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If you had sufficient time and a vibration-free environment, you could patiently wait
and the force of gravity would bring most suspended particles to the bottom of a
centrifuge tube. The smallest particles would probably stay in suspension due to
brownian motion, and most macromolecules would be uniformly distributed because
they would be in solution rather than suspension. I don't know about you, but I don't
have the kind of patience needed in order to rely solely on gravity for separation of
solid from liquid components. Besides, for practical purposes the pellet you obtained
would be way too easily disrupted for effective separation of solid material from
supernatant. Gravity would not be a terribly effective way of separating suspended
materials based on size or other characteristics.
In a suspension of round particles of equal density but different diameters, the force
that drives a given particle to the bottom is equal to its mass times the applied
acceleration. The volume of the particle is a function of its radius, and its mass is
equal to its volume times its density coefficient, which is a constant. The volume of a
sphere is equal to 4/3 times pi (a constant) times the cube of the radius. For a
suspension of spherical particles of equal densities under a specific set of conditions,
the only variable that determines the force on a given particle is its radius.
Spin for several hours at 150,000 x g or so, and you can bring down ribosomes and
even the largest of macromolecules. The supernatant that remains consists of soluble
components of the cytoplasm, including salts, small macromolecules and precursor
molecules, and dissolved gases.