Subject: Re: Metric essay

[Pat Ford]

Previously, you (Squash) wrote:
> 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

actualy after posting this I looked it up, and I was wrong

the 0 point is the approximate temp of a solution made up of 
equal measures ( by weight ) of snow and common salt 

> > 
> > What alcohol are you referring to?  There's tens of
> > thousands of

what I'd heard was the kind you drink ( and don't die 8)

> > "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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--
Pat Ford                           email: pford at qnx.com
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