Perhaps this is the ultimate "What would happen if I... " question. Not really a "what happened when I..." report, I hope!
Putting your hand in the Large Hadron Collider...
What Happens If I ... put my hand in the beam of the Large Hadron Collider?
Perhaps this is the ultimate "What would happen if I... " question. Not really a "what happened when I..." report, I hope!
Putting your hand in the Large Hadron Collider...
What happens if I ... try to thaw the ice in my gutter with a wallpaper steamer?
Experimentally and theoretically...
Well, this was one of the questions which inspired this blog. Very mundane question - but pressing at the moment as I have a large amount of ice in my gutters. One of the gutters has already broken under the weight :(
Using a steam source like a wallpaper steamer (or a similar paint steamer), would I be able to make a dent in the ice?
Well, my neighbour tried it - he was using his paint steamer on his car to de-ice it all, and had a go. Not much happened!
To figure out what should happen - I calculated how much energy it takes to heat up the ice from the current temperature (air temp was around 4 degrees C) to zero, plus the amount of energy required to melt it, then factor in an efficiency estimate.
A 10cm cube of ice will weigh around 915g. The energy required to heat this from -4 to 0 degrees C is relatively low - just 7,500 joules. To melt it though, would take in excess of 305,000 joules.
The wallpaper steamer is rated at 2kW. However, it will not convert all that energy into heat output from the pointy end, nor will that heat all transfer into the ice. Assuming a 100% efficiency though, that would take 2m37s to melt a 10cm cube of ice. The gutter is around 3m long, so at 100% efficiency this would be around 80 minutes. I suspect the efficiency would be rubbish though - so if it was as good as 25% this would take over 5 hours. I suspect it'll be much less efficient than that though...
No wonder nothing much happened in the 5 minutes my neighbour gave it before getting bored!
Using a steam source like a wallpaper steamer (or a similar paint steamer), would I be able to make a dent in the ice?
Well, my neighbour tried it - he was using his paint steamer on his car to de-ice it all, and had a go. Not much happened!
To figure out what should happen - I calculated how much energy it takes to heat up the ice from the current temperature (air temp was around 4 degrees C) to zero, plus the amount of energy required to melt it, then factor in an efficiency estimate.
A 10cm cube of ice will weigh around 915g. The energy required to heat this from -4 to 0 degrees C is relatively low - just 7,500 joules. To melt it though, would take in excess of 305,000 joules.
The wallpaper steamer is rated at 2kW. However, it will not convert all that energy into heat output from the pointy end, nor will that heat all transfer into the ice. Assuming a 100% efficiency though, that would take 2m37s to melt a 10cm cube of ice. The gutter is around 3m long, so at 100% efficiency this would be around 80 minutes. I suspect the efficiency would be rubbish though - so if it was as good as 25% this would take over 5 hours. I suspect it'll be much less efficient than that though...
No wonder nothing much happened in the 5 minutes my neighbour gave it before getting bored!
What happens if I... make a blog about "what happens if I ..."?
Well - this is my first post. Whilst wondering today what would happen if I tried to use a wallpaper steamer to defrost the ice in my gutters (not a lot as it happens) I thought that "what happens if I ..." would be a great website to visit.
Since I couln't find one with 5 seconds of googling, I thought I'd have a go at making one myself - and here we are!
Since I couln't find one with 5 seconds of googling, I thought I'd have a go at making one myself - and here we are!
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