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Re: Vapor?



On Sat, 18 May 2002, Jim Green wrote:

Yeah, "transparent" is a better term. If I pour some air into this room,
it will seem invisible, but really it's just transparent.

Have we really reduced ourselves to this silly locution?

Silly in what way? I'm always open to constructive criticism, but if you
don't explain my error in detail, I won't know how to fix it.

At the K-6 grade level, it's valuable to know that air, water, or any
other transparent fluid is not "invisible." If we lived underwater, we
would think that WATER is an invisible substance, and think that air looks
like silvery stuff which can be carried in a bucket or poured out onto a
table (the submerged bucket and table would have to be upside-down, of
course.)

I've never been more conscious that I live within a transparent fluid than
when servicing the backyard pool. We use bromine tablets. On a windless
day whenever I open the bucket of tablets, the tablets appear bright
yellow-orange. But if I wave my hand towards them, the yellow color wafts
upwards, and can be easily seen against the white siding of the house.
It's bromine gas, obviously (and I'm holding my breath while doing this!)
It's just like being underwater while encountering a bucket filled with
cool, yellow-dyed water. If I was careful, I probably could pour the
bromine vapor into a bucket.

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William J. Beaty SCIENCE HOBBYIST website
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