Liquid Natural Flatulence

[R. A. Hettinga]

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At 6:16 PM +0000 3/31/04, Justin wrote:

>Haven't you ever seen a phase diagram?

Sigh. Yes. Here's one, for water:
<http://wine1.sb.fsu.edu/chm1045/notes/Forces/Phase/Forces06.htm>

And your point is? Let's see, if we rapidly cool boiling water by
dispersing it in supercold air... somewhere past the triple-point, it
goes straight through the solid state, do not pass go, and
*sublimates* directly into the air.

Now, maybe, it freezes at the molecular level, or something, first.
But to the observer, it never reaches a solid state, and it turns
directly into a gas. It sublimates.

My understanding is that it has something to do with the extreme
temperature differential. Like you get with a bunch of boiling LNG
floating on the Mystic River under the Tobin Bridge. Which is what
that guy from the USDOE said.

>Furthermore, can you please explain how boiling water could change
>phase into a gas "all at once"?

I don't have to "explain how". It, in fact, *happens*. This is a
common school-science trick in Alaska when it's cold enough:

<http://www.efieldtrips.org/Climbing/05d_ate_answer_detail.cfm?recordI
D=1219>

<http://kinder.cmsd.bc.ca/pipermail/kinder-l/1999-February/020295.html
>

I went to middle-school in Anchorage, but I didn't know about it
myself until my sister-in-law told me the story, when I'd moved back
to the Lower 48 years later.

She heard about it from an (astronomer?) friend from *Fairbanks* (the
"real" Alaska, you see, they don't call it "Los Anchorage" for
nothing :-)) who used to do it at -60+ below, or something. The first
example, above, is from Mt. McKinley, at 100 below.

Anchorage, being in the "banana-belt" and warmed by the Humbolt
current just like BC, usually only gets down to -40 or so. Hence the
second example, some water, as ice, hits the ground.

So, if you'll stop humping my leg, I'll finish my lunch now...

Cheers,
RAH

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-- 
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R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
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"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'