Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Volatile much?

8 comments:

Teratohmy said...

Why is this a circle? Solids and liquids vaporize but they don't always deposit... Not to mention I think you meant gas instead of vapor...

Anonymous said...

a = sublime or subprime

Anonymous said...

hahahaha @ bk0rq

Jay Standish said...

Perhaps this is the software development cycle at MicroSoft? There is plenty of vapor-ware there!

Excelsior!

Anonymous said...

I agree...this graph is incorrect. From a chemistry standpoint, this should be approached with a phase diagram. Otherwise, it's just an approximation of the actual process.

Anonymous said...

I don't. A illustrates what is probably the most widely known exception to the full circle. And the whole thing also illustrates what people in my field call *abstraction*: leaving out things less relevant to the actual point. BTW: my field is computer programming, so vapor does fit, too, and not for Microsoft only, Lord help it...

Anonymous said...

And I love blOrq's comment, too.

Teratohmy said...

To Henry:

The complaint really is not that it's leaving out info, but on a pure chemical basis it's wrong. I also was leaving out more information than was needed :)

So what I meant is that, solids when heated, do go to a liquid state, but a vapor is a liquid or solid floating around like a gas. Steam is gaseous water that has condensed when it hits colder air, and fumes from welding are vapors of the metal.

I kinda then tripped up on my words, and meant gases don't always deposit, which is when something in the gas state skips to a solid state, such as frost forming.

With all that being said, dry ice doesn't vaporize, it sublimates. It skips the liquid stage and goes straight to the gas phase due to a lack of pressure.

 
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