Subject: Re: Metric essay

[Squash]

I thought water boiled at 100 C (212 F) and froze at 0
C (32 F)???  Not alcohol???

Andy

--- ken mayer <mayerk at idt.net> wrote:
> 
> > Date: Mon, 7 Jun 1999 09:52:37 -0400 (EDT)
> > From: Pat Ford <pford at qnx.com>
> > 
> > Previously, you (ken mayer) wrote:
> [snip]
> 
> > > When Mr. Fahrenheit invented the thermometer, he
> had marked some arbitrary
> > > scale on it.  When he placed it into icewater,
> it read 32.  When he placed
> > > it in his wife's mouth, it read 98.7.  
> > 
> > I'm NOT saying my wife is cold but she read 37.6
> 8))
> > 
> > >When he placed it into boiling
> > > water, it read 212.  It has nothing to do with
> feeling hot or cold.  The
> > > scale is entirely arbitrary.
> > 
> > Close but no cigar 0 degree f is the freezing
> point of acohol (sp?)
> > 100F is the boiling point of acohol
> 
> What alcohol are you referring to?  There's tens of
> thousands of
> "alcohol" compounds.  Some of the simple ones are:  
> Methanol mp= -93.9C,bp= 64.96C 
> Ethanol mp= -117.3C, bp=78.5C  
> 1-propanol mp= -126.5C, bp= 97.4C
> 1-butanol mp= -89.53C, bp=117.25C   
> 1-pentanol mp= -79C bp= 137.3C
> None of these temperatures converts to 0F or 100F. 
> The trend is that the
> larger molecules have a successively higher boiling
> point (as expected).
> 
> Ken
> :-)
> 
> 

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