 |
| Hello, I'm Mr. Thermos. |
So, like all 'Iolani students this week, I pulled all-nighter after all-nighter trying to cram everything that we've learned over the first semester. Wait, I mean, REVIEW. Right? Right, that's what we're telling people. We actually REVIEWED, not studied. 'Cause we should already know all of those concepts and whatnot. Emphasis on the should. Yeah. Um.
Okay, back on track here. The jellybean flavors of the week were 1) Temperature and Heat, 2) Kinetic Theory of Gases, 3) First Law of Thermodynamics, Gases and Engines, and 4) Second Law of Thermodynamics, Efficiency and Entropy. Yup--four chapters. *SIGH*
This ties in to my stressed spiel because an all-nighter's best friend is a thermos. A lovely, big fat thermos that can keep your coffee-slash-tea-slash-all-nighter-fuel all warm and mmmm-good.
 |
| Uber cool built-in thermometer |
While the night is still young, I boil some water and fill up Mr. Thermos all the way up to the brim.
The uber cool built-in thermometer shows me the temperature is about 133 degrees F, which is 406.15 K. The volume of the water inside is 1.7 L or 0.0017 m^3.
As the night goes by, I keep adding fresh tea bags and refilling my cup (mmmmm....green tea with mixed berries) to stay awake. The thermos keeps the temperature fairly constant at 406.16 K. How?
Once I screw the lid on nice and tight, this is when the magic happens.
The water and the walls of the thermos exchange thermal energy because of the difference in their temperatures. But it shouldn't change much because the inner walls of the thermos should be made of something with a low specific heat. They reach thermal equilibrium and the temperature stays fairly constant throughout the night.
And, voila, the Physics of All-Nighter and his best friend, Mr. Thermos.
No comments:
Post a Comment