H2O is not always “wet” – Dry steam can even set objects on fire
H2O is not always “wet” – Dry steam can even set objects on fire
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Monday, April 19, 2021
Nikola Tesla
I do not think you can name many great inventions that have been made by married men
Albert Einstein
Imagination is more important than knowledge.
**Explanation**
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This video is a nice demonstration of the properties of [superheated steam](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superheated_steam). The word superheated here means that the vapor has a higher temperature than the boiling point of water. You can’t get steam this hot by simply boiling water. Instead, you need to take the initial steam you generate and you then need to pass it through an additional unit called the superheater. In this case, the superheater is simply the copper piping where a torch is used to supply additional heat to the steam, raising its temperature further.
A key property of superheated steam is that it is dry. What that means is that it consists of 100% gas. Moreover, because its temperature is above the boiling point of water, this kind of steam can lose energy without condensing. You can better see this idea if you watch the full video below. Before superheating, the steam leaves a tell-tale from the vapor recondensing into droplets near the nozzle. However after you superheat it, the steam is invisible as it leaves the piping.
A second key property of superheated steam is that it packs a lot of thermal energy. This energy can then be transferred to objects coming in contact with the steam. In fact, if the temperature of the steam is high enough, the object can reach a local temperature above its [autoignition temperature](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autoignition_temperature) and ignite. That is exactly what happens in the clip in the case of the match.
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**Source for the GIF** [This video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9uvIhgVz04)
edit: fixed a typo
Super-heated steam is no joke. A relative worked in a refinery that used it, and it would sometimes blast a tiny hole in the pipe, but it was so hot as to be invisible. To find the leaks, they walked with a two by four in front until it would get blasted by the steam, because otherwise it would cut straight through a person if they ran across it unprotected.
Would it set a piece of wood on fire ?
When I worked at a nuclear plant, there was always warning about waking through the steam side of the plant. If there were to be a leak of the high temp/pressure steam from the pipes, there could be a chance you wouldn’t be able to see or hear it and would cause serious bodily injury or death. Many would say it would cut you in half as you walked by.
Now in the rare case someone uses the expression “is water wet” in reference to something being obvious, I can be that annoying guy who chimes in with this bullshit.
ah…superheated steam, a turbine blade’s best friend 🙂
This gif is full of hot air.
[Water is not wet](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pd2nFvp6qnQ) (nsfw language)
Thought you guys would get a chuckle.
Yeah superheaters are standard in power plants to create electricity.
The company I work for is now using H2O to make a flame with a temperature of 2500 degrees to be used in brazing applications. When I first saw it I thought it was witch craft! No oxygen and acetylene, just water and electricity!!
So how long did it take you to notice the guys body holding torch.
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[Superheated Steam – Cool Science Experiment](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9uvIhgVz04)|[+1146](https://www.reddit.com/r/chemicalreactiongifs/comments/7ga77w/_/dqhnmbb?context=10#dqhnmbb) – Explanation This video is a nice demonstration of the properties of superheated steam. The word superheated here means that the vapor has a higher temperature than the boiling point of water. You can’t get steam this hot by simply boiling water. Ins…
[Water is not wet](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pd2nFvp6qnQ)|[+42](https://www.reddit.com/r/chemicalreactiongifs/comments/7ga77w/_/dqhtatr?context=10#dqhtatr) – Water is not wet (nsfw language) Thought you guys would get a chuckle.
[black people yelling about if fish are wet or dry](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWZ9urNKqXY)|[+3](https://www.reddit.com/r/chemicalreactiongifs/comments/7ga77w/_/dqi57uh?context=10#dqi57uh) – I was thinking of this
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All you need is 1 nature and 4 fire runes.
Could have just used the blow torch.
I work in a sugar factory where they use superheated steam to drive turbines, yet I never knew this.
Now I have an irrational fear of a pipe with said superheated steam bursting with me in close proximity.
/u/WaterGuy12 would love this post
Fuel, Temperature, Oxygen. No flame required. That’s what the scouts and Mr manchuck in 7th grade taught me.
It can if the object is a fucking matchstick
“High pressure steam will cut a man in half.”
–My dad, a submariner
Not sure if you wnatet to say it like i understand it, but it is not the “wetness” of water that extinguishes fire but the fact that water is “cool” and by that I mean that it takes a ridiculus amount of energy to heat it up and boil it. So when you extinguish a fire with water, the water sucks all the energy that is required for the reaction away from the fire.
That is also why it sets the match on fire. The steam is already more energetic than the surroundings.
Due to the Douglas liquidity scale, only 75% of water we know is actually wet
I fucks with dry steam everyday, D-type conventional boilers making superheated steam at 415degrees C, at 4500kpa. We make it to heat water, which is then mixed with pay crude to make a slurry.
In plants using superheated steam above a certain pressure they will actually use a corn broom run around the perimeter of a flange to find leaks. The leaks can be heard but not seen due to the dryness of the steam, so they run the broom around the flange to see which flange is leaking, the broom actually catches fire at the leak.
When I did the power engineering program, to fuck around we would hollow out huge snow piles with the dry steam. That was fun.
And ice-nine can freeze dictators solid at room temperature.
They should definitely be wearing gloves. Especially the guy on the left, if you watch the full video he is practically sticking his face in it.
“Ey man, if yo hand is under the water, it isn’t WET!”
Spangly Steve!
hot air is hot
That’s why it hurts in videogames.
I read it as HBO 🙁 had to read it twice.
Water is not wet
Weird morning on Reddit – I see sand act like water, and steam light things on fire.