disjointed ramblings while files download

[ciroccoj]

Happy birthday, lonejaguar!

***
Making progress on the retyping thing. It is faster the second time around, and I found some more stuff I thought I'd lost and only need to reformat.

Found out that the minor kablooie also affected the choir songs I'd downloaded and put into a playlist. Damn Kurt (our director), anyway. Here I am, all ready to renounce choir for the rest of the year... and he goes and posts soundfiles of our next concert's songs on the web. And they're gorgeous.

***
Daniel and Justin tried snails the other day. Justin, who was very excited at the prospect, who bugged Chris about it until Chris finally called his uncle in Calgary and got a recipe from him and made them, and who will usually eat anything that doesn't move - and a few things that do, if they're slow enough - took one bite and declared them to be disgusting.

Daniel, who is one of the food-pickiest kids I know, chewed pensively, then said, "They're OK, but they taste mysterious and they're hard to chew." And he ate both of his and asked for more.

***
Justin has decided that after our cat is gone, we will get a pony. So the other day he told me he wanted our cat to die so we could get a pony. I told him that wouldn't do any good, since if she died right now we wouldn't get a pony anyway - no money. Besides which... she's our pet. We love her. Right?

"I do love her. But I want her to be dead."

Kids. Way too honest for their own good.

***
Do you know why pouring water on fire puts it out? Justin asked me that and I tried in vain to remember enough of OAC Chemistry to explain, but didn't get anywhere.

"Because," he told me. "What's the enemy of hot? Cold. And what's the enemy of cold? Hot. And water is just snow and snow is cold. So the cold and the hot battle each other and then they get destroyed."

And damn it, I couldn't figure out how to tell him he was wrong. Because it does make a hell of a lot of sense.

Comments

[misstexan9821.livejournal.com]

Hah, *love* the reasonings... :-D

OK the answer from the Chemistry professor

[animaltalker.livejournal.com]

Don't discourage him - the best scientists are those who are curious like children. But the real reason water puts out a fire is that fire needs oxygen to continue to burn and the water keeps it from the oxygen (That's why sand puts out fire too). So the main thing you want is too smother a fire.
Word of caution if the fuel for a fire is less dense than water water won't put it out (ever see those war movies where there are fires in the ocean?)

Re: OK the answer from the Chemistry professor

[minnesota-anne.livejournal.com]

Oh!

I'm like a little kid myself, I guess - I always wondered why ships could burn if they were underwater, (like the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor) but I never wanted to ask. So thank you for the answer! :)

Re: OK the answer from the Chemistry professor

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

Don't discourage him - the best scientists are those who are curious like children.

Oh, we wouldn't dream of discouraging him. Chris and I are both science geeks, so questions about how the world works usually thrill us, even if (and sometimes especially if) we can't answer them.

real reason water puts out a fire is that fire needs oxygen to continue to burn and the water keeps it from the oxygen

Hm. I seem to remember there was more to it than that, but that's probably because my chem teacher was notoriously bad at relaying simple concepts simply ;)

Thanks for the explanation - I'll let Justin know :)

Re: OK the answer from the Chemistry professor

[(Anonymous)]

I hate to argue chemistry with a chemistry professor but I think the kid is right. Water puts out a fire by lowering the temperature of the fuel below the ignition temperature. If it was just removing oxygen then unless you submerged whatever was burning in water, once the water ran off the surface the fire would just start up again.

Re: OK the answer from the Chemistry professor

[animaltalker.livejournal.com]

Let's see if we can clear this up- about the ignition temperature- that has to do with Energy of Activation - all chemical reactions have a minimum amount of energy required to initiate the reaction but for a spontaneous reaction - all combustions are spontaneous (which does not mean instantaneous but that the reaction can proceed without external assistance in the form of energy input) - once the reaction is initiated it is self-sustaining because it releases heat (a form of energy) warming it's environment (and thus providing adjacent pieces of fuel the necessary energy of activation).

The one thing the fuel in a fire does need is an oxidant - usually oxygn (although there are other things that can sustain combustion like chlorine and fluorine). A fire is actually the rapid oxidation of a fuel. So yes, while the water does make the wood (or other material) cooler bringing it below the ignition temperature just heating a material isn't going to make it burn nor will cooling something that's burning put the fire out. To make fire you need a fuel, an oxidant and something to provide the energy of activation.

I think the thing to remember is how many other ways there are to extinguish a fire, putting a lid on a grease fire on the stove will make it burn out-why? Not because the lid makes the fuel cooler but because putting a lid on cuts the fire off from a source of oxygen-once the oxygen under the lid is depleted the fire goes out. The typical CO2 fire extinguisher displaces air from the region of the fire while laying down a solid to coat the fuel )(The reason they tell you to aim at the base of the fire is so you are really cutting the fuel off from the O2. Sand works by cutting the fuel off from the air. People whose clothes are on fire are told to drop to the floor and roll, again when the burning clothes are in contact with the floor there's no oxygen getting to the cloth.

So why doesn't the wet fuel reignite when exposed to air - there's still a great deal of moisture in the fuel and that provides a barrier. Solids ren't very combustible in the first place becasue only the surface exposed to the oxidant burns.

Anyway that's a long winded explanation.

LOL

[(Anonymous)]

"I do love her. But I want her to be dead."

Sandra has 'killed' almost all of our pets multiple times in the service of moving up the karmic pet ladder. When X dies can we get Y? I wish Y were dead.

Right now she's convinced Tias to buy a third cat if he gets enough birthday money. Why? Because 2 cats and a dog and Sea Monkeys aren't enough, obviously.

By the way, I've completely humiliated myself on my blog today. I could almost picture you and Chris in the room as I told this as a humiliating story, and all of us being unable to breathe at my expense, so in a way I wrote it for you two!

Sarah

Re: LOL

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

Sandra has 'killed' almost all of our pets multiple times in the service of moving up the karmic pet ladder.

LOL!!!

I just realized I often use your kids as reassurances to myself that my kids aren't totally insane, and we're not bad parents. Because I know you're both good parents, and your kids are nice, so if your kids are doing something... maybe that's a sign that it's a regular kid thing, and not a demented kid thing.

A few years ago I took particular comfort in Rainer telling us about Sandra banging her doll against the floor repeatedly while chanting "Die die die die die" a couple of times. As in, "OK. Sandra does it too. I don't have to get on a waiting list for child shrinks because I've seen Daniel do that to his teddy bear." ::phew::

[snarkhunter.livejournal.com]

Snails?

::shudder::

nevernevernevernevernevernevernevernevernevernever

Have I mentioned that I'm really, really afraid of slugs (and therefore, by extension, snails)?

You have a brave family. Also, I love Daniel's "they taste mysterious."