[AT] Best way to prevent diesel gel

[Larry Goss]

LOL!  That's one of the "gee whiz" experiments done in high school physics or chemistry classes to get the attention of the problem students.  It can be done with distilled water very well.  There aren't enough foreign ions in the water to cause the ice crystals to start forming on their own, but as soon as you disturb the liquid of a super-cooled solution, the whole thing will freeze solid.  It's been at least 60 years since I thought of that phenomenon.  It's different from the PTV (pressure, temperature, volume) problem that is most easily demonstrated by popping the top of a beer or soft drink and having it freeze solid because of a change in pressure...

But enough already.  I don't want to teach this class!

Larry


Larry


----- Original Message -----
From: K7jdj at aol.com
Date: Sunday, December 13, 2009 18:02
Subject: Re: [AT] Best way to prevent diesel gel
To: at at lists.antique-tractor.com

> Me too  :-).
> 
> But on a somewhat  related subject -- we have had unusually 
> cold weather 
> here in the NW the past  few days.
> 
> I keep some bottled water in a carport.  The carport  
> temperatures stay a 
> little warmer if there is no wind but the difference 
> between  the carport and 
> a patio away from the house varied as much as 8 
> degrees.   Some of the 
> variation was understandable some not.  BUT, the real  
> interesting event was the 
> bottled water.  With the temperature in the low  
> twenties, some of the 
> bottles were frozen some not.  When I would take one  
> of the unfrozen in the 
> house, it would immediately freeze.  You could watch  
> it turn in just a few 
> seconds.  I thought water froze at more or less 32  
> degrees.  Any of you 
> chemists or physicists have an explanation in laymen  
> terms?  I did some Google 
> research but not sure any of what I found fully  explained 
> what I was 
> observing.
> 
> Gary
> 
> Renton, WA  
> 
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