防火氣球
Yael, Want to see a trick?
Sure.
Here, blow up this balloon.
Ok, now what?
Now, I light this candle. Now what do you think will happen when you put the flame under the balloon?
It’ll pop, of course. The flame will heat the rubber to the point where it becomes weak and can’t hold up under the pressure from the air inside.
Right, expect not always.
What do you mean?
Watch, first, I put about a quarter cup of water in the balloon and blow it up. There, now hold this while I light another candle.
This is a trick, right? You pop it and I get wet?
No, trust me. The balloon won’t pop.
It better not.
See.
Wow, you are right. How comes it not pop?
As long as the flame is beneath the water in the balloon, the water absorbs most of the heat and the rubber doesn’t get very hot. But won’t the water eventually get hot enough to break the rubber?
Eventually, water will take a while. Water has a really large specific heat, meaning that it takes a lot of heat to make water boil, and even more heat to make it vaporize. In fact, it takes about 540 calories of heat to evaporate one gram of water.
Well, it hasn’t pop yet.
Of course, if I move the flame to another part of the balloon.
Don, I’m all wet.
Sorry, I wouldn’t resist.
想看變戲法嗎?
當然。
給你,吹氣球吧!
然后呢?
我會點燃一根蠟燭,你覺得把氣球放在火焰下,會發(fā)生什么事情呢?
氣球當然會爆了哦,橡膠在火焰的熏烤下會達到一個無法承受氣球內氣壓“傷不起”的極限。
沒錯,但是并非一貫如此哦。
什么意思?
看著,首先,我將1/4杯的水倒入氣球中,再吹好氣球,你幫我拿著氣球,我再點燃一支蠟燭。
你在捉弄人嗎?氣球會爆,我全身都濕透了。
不,相信我,氣球不會爆的。
最好你說的是真的。
看看吧。
你說的是真的,但是,為什么氣球不爆呢?
氣球里的水會吸收火焰絕大部分的熱量,如此橡膠不會過熱。但是,水會不會太熱了,橡膠炸了呢?
水變熱需要段時間吧,水的比熱容很大,也就是說水沸騰需要很多熱量,而更多的熱量才能讓水蒸發(fā)。事實上,1克水蒸發(fā)需要540卡路里。
你看,氣球還沒爆。
當然,不過如果我將火焰移到氣球的另一邊。
我全身都濕透了。
不好意思,我只是太想知道會怎么樣了。
specific heat:比熱容(specific heat capacity)又稱比熱容量,簡稱比熱(specific heat),是單位質量物質的熱容量,即使單位質量物體改變單位溫度時的吸收或釋放的內能。比熱容是表示物質熱性質的物理量。通常用符號c表示。
vaporize:蒸發(fā)