Re: superheated water

[newboltw <NewboltW@MADISON.ACAD.WLU.EDU>]

> Date:          Thu, 03 Feb 2000 16:53:28 -0800
> From:          William Beaty <billb@ESKIMO.COM>
> Subject:       Re: superheated water
> To:            PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu
> Reply-to:      "phys-l@lists.nau.edu: Forum for Physics Educators"
>                <PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu>

> On Thu, 3 Feb 2000, Bernard G. Cleyet & Nancy Ann Seese wrote:
>
> > About the twice boiling, I'll repeat:  I've was told and then experimentally
> > confirmed that boiling stones no longer work if one stops boiling and then
> > tries to start again.  I always discarded them after use. Now I'd rinse them
> > and try using again after drying.
> >
> > bc
> >
> > P.s I'm beginning to suspect that only gas acts as a nucleating agent.  A la W.
> > B.
>
> Not me!  I think Chris Bohren talked about it in CLOUDS IN A GLASS OF
> BEER.  Once I encountered the concept, all sorts of things started making
> sense.
>
> On the other hand, nano-scale events can also trigger boiling, but perhaps
> this only occurs during extreme superheating of liquids where there are no
> nucleator-bubbles to limit the temperature rise.  Depending on particular
> conditions in the liquid, bubbles which are below a certain size will
> SHRINK because the highly-curved liquid/gas interface promotes
> condensation.  If the size-threshold for bubble growth depends on the
> amount of superheating, then everything makes sense.  For
> slightly-superheated liquids, only a relatively large bubble could act as
> a nucleation site.  For extremely superhead liquids, even a single ion
> could trigger the creation of a boiling bubble.  I only heard recently
> that particle tracks in bubble chambers are created when the pressure is
> *suddenly* removed from relatively warm liquid hydrogen.  Does this mean
> that bubble chambers go "bang?"
>
> If beer can detect cosmic rays, the way to do this would be to use warm,
> overly-carbonated beer in unopened bottles, then pop the cap and flash a
> strobe light after a short delay.
>
> These conditions might have occasionally arisen naturally before the
> 1980's?
>
> :)
>
>
>
> ((((((((((((((((((((( ( (  (   (    (O)    )   )  ) ) )))))))))))))))))))))
> William J. Beaty                                  SCIENCE HOBBYIST website
> billb@eskimo.com                                  http://www.amasci.com
> EE/programmer/sci-exhibits          science projects, tesla, weird science
> Seattle, WA   206-781-3320          freenrg-L taoshum-L vortex-L webhead-L

When I was in Stockholm in 1968 I was able to go to the Nobelfest
when the Nobel Prize was awarded to Luis Alverez.  His nobel lecture
was about the discovery of the bubble chamber.  He said that some of
the first ideas for the bubble chamber arose when he and Donald
Glaser were having lunch.  They were watching the bubbles form in
a mug of carbonated liquid.  They noticed that some points on the
inner surface of the mug produced copious bubbles--others produced
very few bubbles.  They reasoned that the points producing many
bubbles were probably points where they was some net charge due
to irregularities in the glass or impurities on the surface.  This
line of reasoning led to a proposal to the funding agencies to
produce the first functioning bubble chamber.               WBN
Barlow Newbolt
Department of Physics and Engineering
Washington and Lee University
Lexington, VA 24450

Young man if I could remember the names of all of
these particles I would have become a botanist
                        Enrico Fermi
Telephone and Phone Mail:  540-463-8881
Fax: 540-463-8884
e-mail: NewboltW@madison.acad.wlu.edu