# Tag Info

98

Energy is needed to convert water to steam. This is called the latent heat of vapourisation and for water it is 2.26MJ/kg. So to boil away 1kg (about a litre) of water at 100ºC the kettle would need to supply 2.26MJ. Assuming the kettle has a power of 1kW this would take 2260 seconds. Given the unexpected interest in this question let me expand a bit on ...

84

Thus, the air molecules contribute a small portion of their kinetic energy to the paddle, which is then expended as heat on the other side of the border, making the air molecules on the left colder, while air molecules on the right heat up. Doesn't this mean a decrease in entropy? Yes it does. However, we need to take the thermal noise of the resistor ...

53

By popular demand (considering two to be popular — thanks @Rod Vance and @Love Learning), I'll expand a bit on my comment to @Kieran Hunt's answer: Thermal equilibrium As I said in the comment, the notion of sound in space plays a very significant role in cosmology: When the Universe was very young, dark matter, normal ("baryonic") matter, and light ...

47

Sort of, yes. Ice water is, in fact, a negative-calorie foodstuff and could be used to lose some weight. Fats contain about 37 kJ/gram of energy, drinking one glass of ice water will burn about 37 kJ or up to three times more if you eat some crushed ice as part of drinking the water: so that's 1 gram of fat burned per drink, up to 2-3 if you eat ice. The ...

41

I did some experimenting (playing ? :-)). The effect is "ill conditioned" and, while the result when the wicks are in close proximity is always a joined flame, the results when the separation is increased slightly is very 'time variable'. Using even quite thin candles (thicker than tapers - about 10mm od) flame proximity could not be got close enough to ...

38

The direction of the gravitational force would not change under time reversal. Your object would feel a force downward, just as it does usually. It might be easier to imagine you had a movie of an object under the influence of gravity. Drop the ball from rest some distance above the floor. You'll see it move downward and speed up. You'd interpret this as a ...

37

From the ideal gas law, we know: $$v_\textrm{sound} = \sqrt{\frac{\gamma k_\textrm{B} T}{m}}$$ Assuming that interstellar space is heated uniformly by the CMB, it will have a temperature of $2.73\textrm{K}$. We know that most of this medium comprises protons and neutral hydrogen atoms at a density of about 1 atom/cc. This means that $\gamma = 5/3$, and ...

36

Typically, satellites use radiative cooling to maintain thermal equilibrium at a desired temperature. How they do this depends greatly on the specifics of the satellite's orbit around Earth. For instance, sun-synchronous satellites typically always have one side in sunlight and one side in darkness. These are particularly easy to keep cool because you can ...

31

Do black holes violate the first law of thermodynamics? No. See Wikipedia re the first law of thermodynamics: "The first law of thermodynamics is a version of the law of conservation of energy, adapted for thermodynamic systems. The law of conservation of energy states that the total energy of an isolated system is constant; energy can be transformed ...

30

Law of Thermodynamics says that two bodies eventually will have equal temperatures. That is not an absolute Law. There are conditions, and one of those conditions involves the energy input to the bodies. If this Law was absolute, then the Sun would be at the same temperature as the universe, about 2.7 K, because the universe is much larger than the ...

30

Typically: $\rm d$ denotes the total derivative (sometimes called the exact differential):$$\frac{{\rm d}}{{\rm d}t}f(x,t)=\frac{\partial f}{\partial t}+\frac{\partial f}{\partial x}\frac{{\rm d}x}{{\rm d}t}$$This is also sometimes denoted via $$\frac{Df}{Dt},\,D_tf$$ $\partial$ represents the partial derivative (derivative of $f(x,y)$ with respect to $x$ ...

30

The actual efficiency of the engine is most likely not driven by the "outlet temperature" but by the viscosity of the lubricants. On a cold day an engine has to work a lot harder to move the oil, and this will definitely affect (negatively) the efficiency - at least until the engine heats up. Next, the temperature at the hot part of the cycle will be lower ...

29

The metal mug will equilibrate with the water much faster than the foam mug will— but after that the heat has no place to go except to be lost as steam via natural convection or transferred away through radiation,$^\dagger$ heat transfer mechanisms which do not depend on the material of the mug. It turns out that radiation plays a very small role as shown ...

27

Just want to bring up that most answers seem to be taking "space" to be a nice uniform medium. However, even within our own galaxy, conditions vary wildly. Here are the most common environments in the Milky Way: Molecular Clouds, $\rho\sim 10^4\,{\rm atom}/{\rm cm}^3$, $T\sim 10\,{\rm K}$ Cold Neutral Medium, $\rho\sim 20\,{\rm atom}/{\rm cm}^3$, $T\sim ... 27 Has Musk done his homework? With regard to the basic idea of using nuclear weapons to release CO2 and thereby warm Mars, no, he hasn't. I suspect this was either Bored Elon Musk speaking, or perhaps the Elon Musk who didn't quite deny being a super villain ( 1-900-MHA-HAHA Elon Musk?) in that interview with Colbert. CO2's enthalpy of sublimation is ... 26 I presume that the question is actually "which of these experiences greater acceleration due the difference between the force of gravity and atmospheric forces on the cannon ball" because "which one will reach the ground first" has all kinds of flippant answers waiting. The hotter cannonball has a few properties that may be relevant: it will be larger: ... 24 I don't understand the difference between the first and the second question, but the answer is "No, you don't need air for the clothes to dry". In fact, it will dry faster if in vacuum, because the water will start to boil in zero pressure, even if the temperature is not 100º C. In fact, at zero pressure, water cannot exist in liquid, but will evaporate if ... 23 The partition function is strongly related to a very useful tool in probability theory called the moment generating function(al) of the probability distribution. For any probability distribution$p$of some random variable$X$, the generating function$\mathcal{M}(z)$is defined as being: \mathcal{M}(z) \equiv \langle e^{zX}\rangle ... 23 Well first you have the energy in the form of kinetic energy of the spinning water. Once you let that water settle, it DOES get hotter. The only problem is that water has a high specific heat (it takes a LOT of energy to heat up water), so you don't notice the water getting hotter since the amount it's heating up is not very noticeable. Coincidentally, it ... 22 I think you are right. A perhaps more precise relation between temperature and velocity is the Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution: \begin{equation*} P(\textbf{v}) = \left( \frac{m}{2\pi k_B T} \right)^{3/2} \text{exp} \left[-\frac{m ( \textbf{v} - \textbf{v}_0)^2}{2 k_B T} \right]. \end{equation*} where you see that the mean velocity$\textbf{v}_0$and the ... 22 As far as the theory goes, you are absolutely correct, the (negative) binding energy between atoms in a molecule contributes to the total mass of that molecule, so a stable molecule is less massive than the sum of the masses of its constituent atoms. However (as you yourself calculated), the mass difference is absolutely tiny, and as far as I know, it has ... 19 In practice, no. In theory, also no. The Universe is filled with photons with an energy distribution corresponding to 2.73 K. Every cm$^3$of space holds around 400-500 of them. That means that if you place your "stable body" in an ever-so-isolated box, the box itself will never come below 2.73 K, and neither will the body inside. It will asymptotically go ... 19 The reason is the same as why a metal pipe feels colder than wooden plank at the same temperature: thermal conduction. The heat from your tongue (including the moisture) is absorbed faster than your body can replenish it. This has the effect of freezing your saliva in the tongue's pores to the metal surface (which itself isn't too smooth at small scales). ... 18 Mammalian sense of smell is in general exquisitely keen: even though we think of ourselves as an animal having a dull smell sense comapared to that of, say, a dog, a pig or a rat, receptors for certain scents are still triggered by molecules counted in the tens. So the outgassing of volatile wood oils from, say, a table, can still be miniscule and well ... 17 You are looking at this incorrectly. Pale skin allows the UV to penetrate more deeply than dark skin (that has the melanin in the dead skin cells). Since dark skin individuals absorb the UV in the dead skin layer, it make no difference if it causes DNA damage. 16 updated calculations - based on neutrino energy escaping and vapor inhalation risk Your math is close but not quite right. First - the number of tritium atoms. There are 1000/(16+3+3) = 45 moles (as you said) This means there are 45*2*$N_A$=$5.5 \cdot 10^{25}$atoms of Tritium Now the half life is 12.3 years or 4500 days, that is$3.9\cdot 10^8 \$s. ...

16

There are a lot factors involved here, but as internal combustion engines follow the Otto or Diesel cycle, those cycles (which are less efficient than the Carnot cycle) are the right model to follow, rather than the Carnot cycle itself. Let's say we reduce the inlet air temperature from 300 Kelvin to 270 Kelvin (90%) while keeping compression ratio and RPM ...

15

Black is the best emitter because if something is black it means it's strongly coupled to the electromagnetic field. Thermal radiation Physical objects are surrounded by electromagnetic radiation. One source of radiation is stars such as the sun. Stars emit visible light, infrared radiation, and in fact a whole range of wavelengths. You can see a plot of ...

15

I would suggest that the bottom penny does not have the same composition. A zinc penny is mentioned in the comments (BTW, what a tedious video) and zinc has a much lower melting point than copper (420 C vs 1085C). Copper plated zinc pennies were introduced in 1982. Given that it started to melt almost straight away, I think that is your answer. At about 10 ...

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