Making Fire from Ice

[SA Friday]

Don't do it, dude!

[Irving]

What SAFriday means is that Halloween is right around the corner and if you mangle yourself, it will be perfect timing!

[SA Friday]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_OXM4mr_i0

NOOOOOO! You'll get all Freddie-fried!

[Irving]

You should have posted this months ago!

On a side note, I understand boiling to be a cooling process that restricts water from being heated passed 212 degrees Fahrenheit *depending on atmospheric pressure*. I don't understand why water won't boil without impurities. Know any more about this?

[CapLock]

Fire from a condom. Ha ha now all u star trek and dungen and dragons fans have a use for those rubber you've been holding onto for all these years

[Irving]

Don't forget Star Wars.

[SA Friday]

You should have posted this months ago!

On a side note, I understand boiling to be a cooling process that restricts water from being heated passed 212 degrees Fahrenheit *depending on atmospheric pressure*. I don't understand why water won't boil without impurities. Know any more about this?

H2O can be heated to it's boiling point and is technically boiling even though there isn't bubbles forming in the liquid. The gas is being released off of the surface. The bubbles are a result of surface tension around particles in the liquid. That's why when you add something to distilled water at boiling or above temps, you get the splashee splash everywhere. You can see the same thing in a slower phase by putting a spoon in water almost at boiling and touching the bottom of the pan. You get bubbles off of the spoon, mostly on the bottom. Molecular polarity comes into play here, but I will skip it and save you the . This is going into chemistry and physics molecular theories. I love this stuff, but it's really complicated and all theory.

So, back to water. H2O will absorb heat until it reaches it's boiling point and then levels out at that temperature until all of the H2O molecules have reached the boiling point. Then you see a rise in temperature again. The temp will continue to rise and the phase change to gas will continue at a faster and faster rate until the reaction/phase change is complete. The same thing happens in all elements and pure compounds, and freezing points of elements and pure compounds in reverse. Altitude/pressure and what elements are in the compounds all affect boiling and freezing points.

Some compounds have very low boiling points and in the lab we add these little chips of ceramic to them to ensure the bubbles form when testing boiling points as they are pure or close enough to pure. If you don't, you get the same anomoly as with the distilled H2O, but now you are dealing with potential dangers other than just hot water. Boiling hydrochloric acid everywhere is a bad day and a trip to the emergency shower.

This anomoly is called a flash boil. It can happen at room temp in some cases. The most common is mixing water and acids and bases. The enthalpy of the reaction during mixing can cause enough heat to flash boil if done improperly. That's why we always add acids and bases to water and never the other way around. It's also why we use a stirring stick to run the acid or base down into the water. It stops it from flash boiling.

If you want to really understand the phase change in water (solid to liq to gas) look up a water phase diagram and read about it. There's actually a point where pressure and temp can effect other instant phase changes in water. If you want to see this do a search on youtube for 'boiling water at -20 degrees'. You should find a lot of vids on this almost instant phase change. Oh ya, cold water can be turned into ice without making it colder by pressurizing it too. If you want to get really deep into it, look up colligative properties. Be warned though, some of this stuff will cause your head to hurt.

[Irving]

So without impurities, the water is still technically boiling, just without bubbles? And water can be heated passed 212 without adding pressure?

[hollohas]

So without impurities, the water is still technically boiling, just without bubbles? And water can be heated passed 212 without adding pressure?

I believe adding salt to the water will change the boiling point. Boils at a higher temperture without added pressure. Just like if you put salt on ice it melts, the salt raises the freezing point.

SA Friday, correct me if I'm wrong, seems like you payed attention in school. Thermodynamics, chemistry and the likes all make my head hurt so I have blocked those classes out of my memory as much as possible...5 years of studying engineering and I don't remember much.