Dry water.
That’s right, water that is not wet (via BoingBoing). Shit is almost too wild. I can’t really imagine what this stuff feels like, smells like, even looks like. I’m willing to bet it tastes like ass, though.
What I really want to do is put a black light in this dry water, but I’m slightly afeared of being instantly transported to a strange new dimension where everyone walks around in circles upside down.
I am also afeared that the Science Men are now that much closer to developing Ice-Nine.
evan :: Apr.14.2004 :: NetBits :: 7 Comments »
If it aint H2O, it aint water.
Is it really that much less weird to call it “a liquid that isn’t wet”?
Yes! There are all sorts of crazy liquids out there. Liquid Helium can freeze things to near absolute zero…but its a liquid.
I vaguely remember that on Mr. Wizard they once showed this powder that prevents you from breaking the surface tension of a pool of water. So if you sprinkle this stuff over the surface of the water, you can stick your hand all the way in and it wont get wet. It will get covered with powder though. Thats closer to “dry water” as far as Im concerned.
See, I think that’s more like putting on a rubber glove and dunking your hand in water. You don’t get wet because there’s another impermeable substance between you and the water.
This stuff is fascinating to me because it sloshes about, seemingly having all the qualities of a liquid, but then it simply doesn’t get anything wet. Whether it doesn’t adhere to anything or evaporates instantly, I don’t know. I just know that it freaks me out.
On a practical level, it should be a lot safer. Right now to protect things that can’t get wet from fire, like server rooms, they suck the oxygen out of the room. Sucks for you if you’re stuck in there.
Leave it to an actual scientist (me) to solve the mystery for you all. Now this is just my theory based on a very cursory view of the 3M fact sheet. I really don’t have time for this crap:
3M has created a substance that is liquid at STP, but has such weak inter-molecular bonding that it’s heat of vaporization is almost negligible, and it’s vapor pressure is very high. This way, if it comes anywhere near heat, it turns right into a gas. It doesn’t suck the oxygen out of anything, it drapes the fire in a cloud that snuffs it. Then, it probably either dissipates immediately, or turns into a liquid which, because of the high vapor pressure, evaporates in a matter of seconds.
i remember that episode of mr. wizard, dan. it doesn’t work with shower to shower though. it just makes a huge mess.
The datasheet is here. You weren’t far off, Marc. The stuff is actually kept under pressure in nitrogen canisters and is expelled as a gas. The cooling that occurs in the process turns it into a liquid about 1.6 times as dense as water. Its boiling point is low: about 120 degrees Fahrenheit. So the heat from the fire turns it back into a non-inflammable gas which smothers it, extinguishing the fire.
What Evan was talking about was the Halon-alternative systems in place now, most of which work by flooding the room with some gas like CO2. They don’t really suck the oxygen out of the room — the fire does that — as displace it with something that can’t burn. It also adds nothing of value to your hemoglobin, which is why being in a room where it’s deployed is contrindicated for living things.
My real point was that either Marc has a tic in his right pinky finger or being an “actual scientist” has done nothing to improve his grammar.