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Eddy Vluggen wrote: The way you're explaining it, it's not a different representation, but a conversion. Something like going from HTML to RTF.
It's a conversion, it's deterministic macroscopically, and it has a rather simple (but not too simple) conversion function. Sort of like a switch with 3 cases per transition.
Check this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooling_curve[^]
This graph shows what happens to the temperature of a material(the temperature is related to the mean kinetic energy of the molecules, irrespective of state) as it goes from liquid (far left, smooth decline) to solid (far right, smooth decline again). Notice the sharp angle and the plateau that occurs at "freezing" temperature. Sharp angles in physics denote violent changes. Here, when the liquid (say, water) reaches this temperature (for water, 273 Kelvin), the temperature in the water stops dropping although we continue to pump heat out of it (by using e.g. a freezer). In this transient state, both ice and water co-exist, as some molecules have so little internal energy left, that the binding forces that keep them together forcefully bind them to a lattice, stopping any "attempt" to escape or move freely. Other molecules still have enough energh to overcome this attraction, and still move as if they're liquid. The heat taken from water to convert it from water of 273 Kelvin (or 0C, or 32F) to ice of the same temperature is called latent heat, and it's a distinct characteristic of the material itself.
A similar curve exists for the transition between liquid and gas.
The funny thing is that under pressure, the width of the plateau in that graph changes, and also the temperature at which it occurs changes. For instance, gas inside a can of spray is at such high pressure, that even in room temperature, it's a liquid. Above a certain value of pressure (dependent on the material as well) it actually vanishes. At such high pressure, it makes no sense to talk about gas, liquid or solid state. There's no real distinction between the three. We believe that this is what goes on deep inside the gas giant planets of the solar system.
By the way, it's fun th check out the qualities of superfluids[^], such as liquid helium
Gasp, another wall of text! Ok, I'll shut up now...
Φευ! Εδόμεθα υπό ρηννοσχήμων λύκων!
(Alas! We're devoured by lamb-guised wolves!)
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yiangos wrote: Sort of like a switch with 3 cases per transition
That "sort of" made me somewhat uneasy, but you were referring to the number of states that a substance can have. And there are more states than the three that I learned at school.
..but liquids that climb up a wall and "escape" from a cup? Sounded more like voodoo than physics!
Thanks for the explanation 
I are Troll 
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I think some Big Ass Heat-lamps would be much simpler and probably consume less power.
And above all things, never think that you're not good enough yourself. A man should never think that. My belief is that in life people will take you at your own reckoning. --Isaac Asimov
Avoid the crowd. Do your own thinking independently. Be the chess player, not the chess piece. --Ralph Charell
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Flame war, maybe?
Go and boil your bottoms, sons of a silly person.
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The real problem I see with this solution is that snow (ice) melts into water which tends to turn back into ice and usually a more dangerous form of it. Places like where I live (we haven't seen > 0C temps for ~2weeks), it doesn't do any good to melt the snow.
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Microwaves only act on polar molecules that are free to spin back and forth. Water molecules in ice are rigidly bound and can't spin. The reason you can thaw your food out is that a few molecules of water on the surface melt due to the higher ambient temperature outside the freezer and other polar molecules in the water. Snow in a snowstorm won't melt effectively this way as a result.
3x12=36
2x12=24
1x12=12
0x12=18
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nice point
Ravie Busie
Coding is my birth-right and bugs are part of feature my code has!
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Actually, this rigidity only reduces the effect, and does not eliminate it completely. Or, if you have infintely rigid bonds in your ice, let me know, and we can win a Nobel Peace Prize together.
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Or, you could use a multi spectral source at a relatively low power density to warm the snow and evaporate the water residue.
Oh wait - that's called sunshine.....
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I'd be willing to bet that every hardcore software developer on earth that lives in a snowy climate has thought of a zillion different alternative schemes to get rid of it while shovelling.
My top three I've considered are lasers to zap individual flakes with some kind of optical tracking program for each flake as it falls, hot water heating under the driveway to melt it (highly inefficient but people actually do this), nanotech snow removal, you just open a bag of it (like road salt) and sprinkle some in the driveway and Bob's your lobster.
"Creating your own blog is about as easy as creating your own urine, and you're about as likely to find someone else interested in it." -- Lore Sjöberg
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"Set phasers on defrost"?
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Sounds like what you want is one of them 1950's era microwave transmitters. They even have a convenient dish for directing the microwave beam. Bonus points if you figure out how to use paraffin lenses to focus the microwaves into a nice, tight little beam.
patbob
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Here buy something like this: http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/01/sci-fi-weapons/3/
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The wavelength on microwaves is rather long 3cm or so, while water and especially water vapor are very very good ad absorbing the energy(why we didnt put microwave radar on our ships, our meaning the US, was because the humidity reduced the range to uselessness). You would have to heat the water to the evaporation point which if its snow or ice would require quite a bit of energy. Put an ice cube in your microwave and see how long it takes to boil it away. your best bet would be to use a short wavelength laser(shorter wavelength = more energy generally)x rays would be better but they're ionizing and thats always bad. Theres a bunch of ways to power up lasers, they make some on chips the size of the end of a pen that can cut through soda cans w/ no problem. Once you have a laser powerful enough(couple hundred watts prolly) you need a diffuser to spread it out in a line then just fire it in front of you while you walk. or mount it under the front bumper of your car to clear paths for your tires.
I have no idea if that will work, but it sounds good, and fun to build.
Please remember to rate helpful or unhelpful answers, it lets us and people reading the forums know if our answers are any good.
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Unless you want cataracts, don't start fooling around trying to defeat your microwave oven's safety features. It's optical output is really high, and can kill a bird at fifty paces. It's already directional, and you can't predict how it's going to reflect. Sure it's fun to think about, but leave it at that.
- Owen -
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It's possible to use microwaves to melt snow, but you wouldn't be able to just turn the microwave oven inside out, that could take hours, if it did anything at all.  As for the snowball, you would need A LOT of power to melt it that fast, and it would have to be focused all on the same point... Fun idea though Oh, another thing too, if you were planning on building something like this, just know that microwave ovens have gigantic capacitors in them (to create the radiation), which is not good if you happen to be taking one apart.
That raccoon started it.
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That is what has happened with me. In my new project, there is no internet connection available. So, no CP. 
We do have a couple of computers where we can access internet, but that is not possible for me who always had at least one CP window open.
50-50-90 rule: Anytime I have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there's a 90% probability I'll get it wrong...!!
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Sorry to hear that. No internet and no CP - tragic  .
On the bright side though, your boss is going to be very happy because your productivity is going to go up.
| There are only 10 types of people in this world — those who understand binary, and those who don't. |
modified on Tuesday, January 5, 2010 12:21 PM
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Abhinav S wrote: your boss is going to be very happy coz your productivity is going to go up
Bullshit. How can you say that? If I do not have internet does not mean I will be working all the time. Also, I might actually take me more time to finish things. Suppose I got stuck somewhere and don't know or am not sure what to do. How can I check if I am correct or whatever I am doing is even possible or not?
A very simple example: I don't remember a single connection string. Why? Since I know ConnectionStrings.com has it. All I have to do is one quick search and done. Now, I might spend 10-15 mins figuring out one extra semicolon or something to fix the string up.
50-50-90 rule: Anytime I have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there's a 90% probability I'll get it wrong...!!
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d@nish wrote: Suppose I got stuck somewhere and don't know or am not sure what to do
See here[^] and here[^].
| There are only 10 types of people in this world — those who understand binary, and those who don't. |
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Abhinav S wrote: On the bright side though, your boss is going to be very happy because your productivity is going to go up.
The fact that the boss misuses his internet for fun, doesn't mean that the working crew uses it for fun. I'd rather see someone browsing through MSDN than having them going to a library during working hours.
No, such an attitude is outdated. He should have internet and two screens - happy programmers are more productive than unhappy programmers. I'm even willing to bet you a banana on that 
I are Troll 
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Eddy Vluggen wrote: I'm even willing to bet you a banana on that
if it's a Chiquita, you shouldn't call it a banana.
And if it isn't, I'm not interested.
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I are Troll
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Abhinav S wrote: On the bright side though, your boss is going to be very happy because your productivity is going to go up.
But we've already seen the equation this week which proves that more hours spent working = more errors, so his boss will be unhappy at the increase in bug reports.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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