All about water. (courtesy youtube)
I'm sure you've all heard the story about Archimedes in his bathtub. The king had a new crown made of solid gold, and when it was delivered, he questioned whether or not it was truly made entirely of gold, and not impurified with silver. But the only way to test this at the time was to melt some of it down to see what it was made of. So the king gave the problem to Archimedes, royal smart guy, to figure out how to tell if it is solid gold without hurting the crown.
Days passed, as Archimedes thought about the problem, and got nowhere with it. Then his wife told him to take a break and relax in the bath; as he got into the tub, though, he noticed the water rising just as stepped in--and he had the realization that because gold has a specific density, and silver has another, then the two substances would displace different amounts of water, and so it could easily be seen whether or not the crown was impure. His discovery was so amazing that he leaped from his bathtub and ran home through the streets stark naked, shouting
, which means "I have found it, I have found it!" in English.
(Incidentally, the story wasn't written down until two hundred years later, so it's probably embellished. But if the dates weren't also embellished, then it would seem he made this discovery at 22 years of age. 'Tis quite an impressive feat, no matter the specific circumstance.)
Anyway, I was dreaming about water just now. Specifically about how if you increase the pressure of water, eventually will become crystalline, i.e., ice, regardless of temperature. I recalled that when water turns to ice, it takes up more space, unlike most substances. And also that water's compressibility is very, very slight. Putting these together, I realized something.
Superheating is an interesting phenomenon in that superheated water is hot enough to boil, but yet doesn't boil because the water tension keeps it from doing so. Breaking the water tension on superheated water will cause it to boil instantaneously.
But water can also undergo a similar halfway state with regard to pressure and freezing. No, I'm not talking about supercooling, like in the below video. There, water is put below the freezing point, yet doesn't turn to ice because there is nothing to form a crystalline structure around; this changes when it hits the bowl, and the water turns to ice immediately.
What I'm talking about is different. Included in the water will be a point to crystallize, and the pressure may be high enough to induce a freezing phase transition. But instead, the water will stay as liquid.
My mental image was of a planet of nothing but water. In the core, the pressure might be great enough to induce ice to form. But doing so would increase the volume of the water, thus displacing the rest of the water to go uphill, against gravity. There is therefore a point at which there is enough water 'above' the core to discourage it from turning to ice, even though all other conditions are met. I can't find any description of this in the literature, though to be honest, I didn't look past a few google searches. But I find it an interesting phenomenon, for if you remove a bit of water from the surface of this planet, the water in the core will spontaneously freeze.
Too bad there's no youtube video for that.
Days passed, as Archimedes thought about the problem, and got nowhere with it. Then his wife told him to take a break and relax in the bath; as he got into the tub, though, he noticed the water rising just as stepped in--and he had the realization that because gold has a specific density, and silver has another, then the two substances would displace different amounts of water, and so it could easily be seen whether or not the crown was impure. His discovery was so amazing that he leaped from his bathtub and ran home through the streets stark naked, shouting
, which means "I have found it, I have found it!" in English.
(Incidentally, the story wasn't written down until two hundred years later, so it's probably embellished. But if the dates weren't also embellished, then it would seem he made this discovery at 22 years of age. 'Tis quite an impressive feat, no matter the specific circumstance.)
Anyway, I was dreaming about water just now. Specifically about how if you increase the pressure of water, eventually will become crystalline, i.e., ice, regardless of temperature. I recalled that when water turns to ice, it takes up more space, unlike most substances. And also that water's compressibility is very, very slight. Putting these together, I realized something.
Superheating is an interesting phenomenon in that superheated water is hot enough to boil, but yet doesn't boil because the water tension keeps it from doing so. Breaking the water tension on superheated water will cause it to boil instantaneously.
Click to viewBut water can also undergo a similar halfway state with regard to pressure and freezing. No, I'm not talking about supercooling, like in the below video. There, water is put below the freezing point, yet doesn't turn to ice because there is nothing to form a crystalline structure around; this changes when it hits the bowl, and the water turns to ice immediately.
What I'm talking about is different. Included in the water will be a point to crystallize, and the pressure may be high enough to induce a freezing phase transition. But instead, the water will stay as liquid.
My mental image was of a planet of nothing but water. In the core, the pressure might be great enough to induce ice to form. But doing so would increase the volume of the water, thus displacing the rest of the water to go uphill, against gravity. There is therefore a point at which there is enough water 'above' the core to discourage it from turning to ice, even though all other conditions are met. I can't find any description of this in the literature, though to be honest, I didn't look past a few google searches. But I find it an interesting phenomenon, for if you remove a bit of water from the surface of this planet, the water in the core will spontaneously freeze.
Too bad there's no youtube video for that.