Heat is energy transferred from one system to another by thermal interaction. In contrast to work, heat is always accompanied by a transfer of entropy. Heat flow is characteristic of macroscopic objects and systems, but its origin and properties can be understood in terms of their microscopic ...
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179 views
Efficiency of parallel and sequential heat pumps
Consider two identical heat pumps, for example, split-system air conditioners. There're two ways to make them work - in parallel or sequential. Parallel means that "hot" radiators of the machines are ...
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1answer
262 views
How would I calculate the convection coefficient in transient convection?
So I have faced a problem dealing with transient conduction and I need a little help with the problem solving concepts. I need to determine how long it would take to reach the final temperature but I ...
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1answer
678 views
How much disolved oxygen is removed by boiling water?
Apologies if this is a chemistry question
I've read that drinking water contains dissolved oxygen to the tune of $10\:\rm{ppm}$.
I've also read that raising the temperature of water will remove some ...
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1answer
135 views
2d or 1d conduction in this scenario?
There is a rectangular fin attached to a heat exchanger with a base temperature of 350K. The fin has uniform properties and experiencesa uniform heat generation. It also experiences heat transfer with ...
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1answer
464 views
In what situations do I use the characteristic length of a fin to find the surface area?
So I'm learning about fins in heat transfer and it seems that there are two separate formulas for the surface area of a rectangular fin of length L, width w and thickness t. The fin is attached to a ...
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1answer
81 views
Terminology question about energy
I'm looking for the appropriate term to use for what gets "used up" as potential energy is converted to heat and work. For example, some of the the energy in solar radiation is converted by ...
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2answers
113 views
How does cooling scale with volume?
What equation would give me the answer to the question, "If i have a cup of water at a tempature of say boiling, how long would that cup of water take to cool off compared to say half that size of a ...
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1answer
118 views
SDE for particle, PDE for the density
Given a particle on the plane we can assume that it follows 2D Brownian motion. On the other hand if there is a lot of such a Brownian particles one can be interested in the evolution of the density ...
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1answer
240 views
How to vizualize a heat pump microscopically?
Hey guys,
while learning thermodynamics i wondered how a the principle of a heat pump would look at a microscopic level, not on a quantum mechanical level.
I learned that when a hot and a less hot ...
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0answers
53 views
Calculate how hot PLA will become
I am trying to attach the shaft of a brass heating tip to a PLA component. My problem is that the tip will have to reach a temperature of about 200°C and the PLA can only handle a temperature of about ...
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0answers
32 views
Calculating the change in entropy in a melting process
I have a homework question that I'm completely stumped on and need help solving it.
I have a $50\, \mathrm{g}$ ice cube at $-15\, \mathrm{C}$ that is in a container of $200\, \mathrm{g}$ of water at ...
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0answers
31 views
What is the meaning of $h_L - h_H$ for a heat engine?
My problem gives me a Carnot cycle heat engine with water as its working fluid, with $T_H$, $T_L$, and the fact that it starts from saturated liquid to saturated vapor in the heating process.
I need ...
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0answers
71 views
How much money does an unused but plugged-in cellphone-charger waste in a year, if its not getting warm?
Is it right as xkcd states:
You can use heat flow to come up with simple rule of thumb: If an unused charger isn’t warm to the touch, it’s using less than a penny of electricity a day.
Or, more ...
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0answers
42 views
Several questions about spring chiller and LMTD
I'm designing a simple copper coil wort chiller. Digging formulas I'm having hard time to figure some things out, perhaps some simple guides may help me to go the right direction:
LMTD need inlet ...
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0answers
24 views
Does a flame produce free electrons? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Does Fire Conduct Electricity? Why?
Is fire plasma?
Does a flame produce free electrons ? Or is the answer sometimes depending on the chemicals ? Does the answer depend ...
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0answers
48 views
Can I estimate the long-term surface heat transfer coefficient based on a temperature difference between the air surface and ground surface?
I want to estimate the long-term or annual heat transfer coefficient for the earth's surface in a particular area where the mean annual air surface temperature is about 13$^\circ$C, and the mean ...
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0answers
168 views
Simple heat transfer question [closed]
You add an unknown volume of milk of $5.2 ^\circ C$ to a cup of coffee ($40 mL$ of water, temperature: $80.3 ^\circ C$). After a while of stirring the temperature reaches $73.2 ^\circ C$. The ...
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1answer
58 views
Could we really charge metal plates using microwaves?
While skimming through Dielectric heating, I read that they use microwaves to charge the plates. How do they do that?
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1answer
91 views
Physics of homebrewing heat exchangers
In homebrewing on of the key steps when brewing with extract is to rapidly chill the wort from boiling temperatures to about 80F in 30 min. This is needed to reduce risk of environmental ...
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0answers
44 views
What other factors effect the ability of a propigating field of pressure in a gaseous medium to predict gravitational collapse?
What other factors effect the ability of a propigating field of pressure in a gaseous medium to predict gravitational collapse?
Will the only factor influencing the Speed of Sound in this medium be ...
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1answer
458 views
Finding electric power generated using heat transfer
I'm working through an example I have been given to study. Suppose I have a 2m X 4m photovoltaic panel on my roof that is irradiated with a solar flux of $G_s = 700W/m^2$.
Given:
$\alpha_s = 0.83$
...
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0answers
168 views
Is the $mL_c$ value for triangular and rectangular fins the same value?
I am looking at the solutions that my professor put up and I feel that he did something wrong. Here is the question and I will give my stab at the solution so you can see why I think that it is wrong.
...
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0answers
95 views
To determine the age of the Earth by the cooling of the centre of the Earth [closed]
I was given an exercise to make a simple model that suggests that the age of the Earth is 78000 years old.
My current starting point is
$$u_{tt} = u_{xx}$$
so a wave equation. So in polar ...
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0answers
65 views
How to compute the heat flow for a specific material for some given boundary temperature?
Assume I have a bounded material with heat sources inside. The material is known (i.e. I know heat capacity and all relevant data) and the temperature of the boundary is fixed. I solved the (steady ...
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0answers
242 views
Maxwell's Demon - laser cooling
There’s an interesting article on Scientific American
that tells how to cool individual atoms can bee cooled to within a very tiny fraction of Absolute Zero.
It uses two laser beams acting on a very ...
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3answers
670 views
Does closing curtains 'make your home warmer'?
I mean, in the sense that the act of closing curtains would somehow reduce the amount of heat loss of the house to the outside, thus making it warmer for a given supply of heating.
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3answers
279 views
How can there be heat in a vacuum?
I keep reading in the Physics World focus issue on vacuum technology about scientists creating high temperatures in the vacuums etc.
If heat is caused by thermal energy being radiated from particles ...
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2answers
190 views
Why are some of the biggest stars known blue?
My question refers to an overview of the biggest stars we know: http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4138/4820647230_faba1c9f3b_o.jpg
Why are some of those blue?
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2answers
220 views
Is carbon dioxide a greenhouse gas? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
What experiments prove the greenhouse effect?
I am seeking for a proof that CO2 is a greenhouse gas. I posted this on Skeptic.SE recently but found no help in seeking ...
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1answer
127 views
Confused about fire?
Im confused about fire.
The way I see it :
Heat creates (kinetic) energy in mass and this creates stronger vibrations of atoms.
When those vibrations are strong enough the electrons interact ...
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2answers
120 views
Does it make sense to have a theory of thermodynamics about coldness?
When someone comes in from the cold to a heated room, it sometimes feels like there is coldness radiating away from that person. Is there a sense in which we can say that coldness radiates similarly ...
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1answer
137 views
Is this a simple system in which no heat transfer is possible?
Let's say that a hot gas is trapped in a metal box. This metal box is magnetically suspended in another structure with a low temperature. The inner box does not touch anything. And there is a void in ...
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2answers
50 views
Dividing values with units
I'm reading about the subject of heat in a basic physics book. If I am not mistaken the formula to work out how much energy is required to increase the temperature of water is
...
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2answers
42 views
Electric power transmission
If we want to transmit electic current for a long distance, we must minimize a heat that releases because of the resistanse. We cannot make a cable wide because it is expensive and it will be massive. ...
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1answer
108 views
Heat transfer speed - affected by difference in relative heat?
If I put something at room temperature in an environment that is at roughly half room temperature, does it get colder less quickly than if it were placed into an environment with 1/4 room temperature, ...
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1answer
65 views
Does electrically heated water have an adverse effect on hair?
I know I should have asked this question on a different site. but this was the most suitable site available right now for my question. Perhaps after this proposed site goes on Beta, we can move it ...
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1answer
277 views
Temperature change effected by electric heater [closed]
A 40-gallon electric water heater has a 10kW heating element. What will the water temperature be after 15 min of heating if the start temp is 50F degrees.
There must be an equation. I can't find it ...
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1answer
159 views
Does a water cooker element have to be 100C to get water to cook?
I understand that a water heater element is basically just adding energy to the mass of water in the container. So does that mean that the heater element only has to keep adding energy while the water ...
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1answer
381 views
Heat & thermodynamics question based on heat loss [closed]
A Sphere A is placed on a smooth table.Another sphere B is suspended as shown in the figure.Both the spheres are identical in all respects.Equal quantity of heat is supplied to both spheres.All ...
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3answers
670 views
Does opening or closing the window in a non-AC car in the summer affect how much heat is felt inside?
This will perhaps look like a very basic and trivial question. But I find it confusing. As an experience, when you are travelling in non-AC car in summer, have people felt if putting on or putting off ...
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1answer
27 views
A Calorimetry Problem
I have a question in calorimetry from an old competitive exam. The question is:
The temperature of $100$ grams of water is to be raised from $24 ^\circ$C to $90 ^\circ$C by adding steam to it. ...
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2answers
65 views
Does more reflective aluminum foil make a room cooler compared to less reflective foil?
Aluminum foil is said to be not absorbing light at all.
It reflects light. So, does it mean that a more shiny aluminum foil will reflect more light and thus make the room more cooler as compared to ...
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2answers
110 views
How can anything be hotter than the Sun?
I've heard that if a space shuttle enters the atmosphere from a bad angle its surface will become so hot that it will be hotter than the surface of the Sun.
How can that be? It seems to an uneducated ...
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1answer
234 views
Conduction, convection, & radiation examples (besides vacuum flask)
I am studying heat transfer And understanding the vacuum flask example that involves conduction, convection, and radiation
Do you know other example that involves these 3 phases?
we can name some by ...
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1answer
44 views
What happens to pipe outlet temperature here?
I have a fluid flowing through a pipe in the ocean and there is heat transfer from the ocean to the fluid in the pipe. I prepared a simulation and the results show that if I increase the mass flow ...
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2answers
85 views
What would result in a transformer that has its secondary wires disconnected from any circuit?
I am studying magnetism and I am curious as to what happens in a transformer that has its secondary output wires connected through a circuit versus one that doesn't.
My main questions (in the case of ...
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2answers
98 views
Stealing heat, or not?
Say I hook a 1KW steam engine to the steam heat in my apartment, and generate 1KW of electricity (the engine is 1KW mechanical, not 1KW thermal) from it, so I don't have to pay ConEd.
That means I ...
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2answers
2k views
What is the characteristic length of a cylinder
I have a cold cylinder that is submerged in hot water and I need to find the convective heat transfer coefficient. I can do the whole process but I am stuck finding the characteristic length. I found ...
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1answer
464 views
Heat Exchanger Calculation
I have a tank of oil at 55 degrees c. I plan to run a copper pipe 8mm in diameter (1mm thickness) into a coil 15m long inside the tank. For all purposes of assumption, the copper pipe is perfectly ...
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1answer
162 views
At what point can we assume the tip of a fin is adiabatic?
Let's say there is a fin that is 1mm thick, extends 8mm from the surface, and is 10 mm wide. The fin is exposed to a moving fluid. Can we assume the adiabatic tip condition and use the characteristic, ...
