One thing I never realised is how dramatically the viscosity of water changes with temperature. This is probably why you can recognise hot water from a cold water in a video.
Another interesting temperature dependence of water is the negative thermal expansion between 0°C and +4°C. The maximum density is at +4°C.
Therefore, between 0 and 4°C the usual law of natural convection (heat rises) is inverted and you get "heat falls" instead.
What this means is that in winter, the ice on top of water can be frozen but the water can be warmer further down and resist further heat transfer. Natural convection will not act to cool the water from above, and a stable stratified temperature gradient can form. This allows bodies of water to remain liquid in winter for longer than you'd expect in a "normal" liquid.
Hmm, it looks like (TFA author) Purcell's "Back of the Envelope" AmJPhys column, paywalled for decades by AAPT, is currently available online.[1]
"a monthly feature [...] from January 1983 through July 1984. Three new "order-of-magnitude" problems were presented each month [...] there were 57 problems, the discussion of which fills something like 150 column-inches". Eg, the ratio of tide influence from Moon and Sun is 7/3, so what is the ratio of their mean density?
dandare|4 years ago
One thing I never realised is how dramatically the viscosity of water changes with temperature. This is probably why you can recognise hot water from a cold water in a video.
Temperature (C) / Viscosity (mPa*s)
0.01 1.7911
10 1.3059
20 1.0016
25 0.89002
30 0.79722
40 0.65273
50 0.54652
60 0.46603
70 0.40355
80 0.35405
90 0.31417
99.606 0.28275
HPsquared|4 years ago
Therefore, between 0 and 4°C the usual law of natural convection (heat rises) is inverted and you get "heat falls" instead.
What this means is that in winter, the ice on top of water can be frozen but the water can be warmer further down and resist further heat transfer. Natural convection will not act to cool the water from above, and a stable stratified temperature gradient can form. This allows bodies of water to remain liquid in winter for longer than you'd expect in a "normal" liquid.
pfdietz|4 years ago
EDIT: https://www.nature.com/articles/2151053a0
steerablesafe|4 years ago
KineticLensman|4 years ago
unknown|4 years ago
[deleted]
pge|4 years ago
If you studied physics in college, you may have used the textbook he wrote, Electricity & Magnetism.
mncharity|4 years ago
"a monthly feature [...] from January 1983 through July 1984. Three new "order-of-magnitude" problems were presented each month [...] there were 57 problems, the discussion of which fills something like 150 column-inches". Eg, the ratio of tide influence from Moon and Sun is 7/3, so what is the ratio of their mean density?
[1] https://www.aapt.org/Publications/AJP/Readers/back_of_the_en...
gtsnexp|4 years ago