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How to explain ice being pushed by boiling water through a narrow opening ?


Erina

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I would like to explain what is going on here, but I don't know how:

BCDwfa9.mp4

 

Is the steam from boiling water forcing itself out from the narrow gaps between the existing ice in the tube to force it out ?

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1 hour ago, Erina said:

I would like to explain what is going on here, but I don't know how:

Is the steam from boiling water forcing itself out from the narrow gaps between the existing ice in the tube to force it out ?

It seems to me fairly pointless trying to speculate on a few seconds of video with no accompanying description of what is going on. 

(That this video is a continuously repeating loop also adds a certain je ne sais quoi in terms of annoyance value.🙂)

Have you any description of what this pipe is, what it is connected to below, etc.  

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On 8/8/2021 at 7:17 AM, Erina said:

Is the steam from boiling water forcing itself out from the narrow gaps between the existing ice in the tube to force it out ?

Basically. Water around the rod of ice seals it, so as the water turns to vapor and expands it has nowhere else to go but up, so the rod rises. Just like a piston.

edit: see below

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1 hour ago, swansont said:

Basically. Water around the rod of ice seals it, so as the water turns to vapor and expands it has nowhere else to go but up, so the rod rises. Just like a piston.

Why would this water turn to vapour, though? Boiling water can't boil cold water. I think there is some undisclosed source of pressure in the pipe.  It could be water pressure, if this is a pipe connected to a water main. We are not told, and the video snippet carefully cuts off before we can see whether water continues to emerge once the ice plug is out. Or possibly it could be some air pressure built up further along in the pipe, due to freezing and expansion of water within it, causing the air to become compressed. Again we are not told enough. Or it could be something else.

Edited by exchemist
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For me it looks like the rod would be chilled with liquid nitrogen (or something similar) and the boiling water turns to an ice rod which came up because of the increased pressure, the volume change causes during the  water < ice “development” 

Edited by Conscious Energy
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26 minutes ago, Erina said:

Well I'm glad you lot don't know as well.

Still, many avenues of understanding to pursue that a young mind can comprehend (as well as myself).

 

Thanks to all !

Sort of. There's just not enough data to settle on one explanation, really. That's often the trouble with these crappy videos on Youtube. Far from aiding understanding, they are designed to bamboozle.

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2 hours ago, Erina said:

Well I'm glad you lot don't know as well.

Still, many avenues of understanding to pursue that a young mind can comprehend (as well as myself).

 

Thanks to all !

No one who was not involved in the creation of the video would know.

For all we know there could be some guy beneath the pipe pushing it up. It might not be water that is boiling. There may be some chamber beneath the pipe. It may not be water ice that is coming out. 

Need more data...

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1 hour ago, exchemist said:

But the vapour pressure would be less than atmospheric, until it is at boiling point. So it would be incapable of pushing ice out of the tube, surely? 

It’s sealed pretty well. Why would the pressure be below atmosphere? If there’s already some air in there, it would start at atmosphere. And cold.

Also, if the water is going below the ice, the ice will float on the water. Hot water can make the pipe expand, leaving a gap for the water.

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