SWIM showed me this pipe that supposedly makes the water moar fluid. Instead of adding X chemical to decrease surface tension, is it possible that a metal catalyst can do the same?
I don't see why not.
Quote from: :regret: on July 19, 2012, 12:21:11 PM
I don't see why not.
Awesome, swim was thinking this could have positive horticultural effect on crops recalcitrant to irrigation, for whatever reason. The point must be achieving more (watering) with less (water).
Do you have a link?
Not sure how that would help plants directly w/o lining their capillaries with the stuff, but it would require less pumping to move the same volume of water through the same diameter pipe, so that's energy savings. I don't think it would be that significant on just water though, although I could see that being a big deal for some industrial process that needs to pipe viscous gunk all over the place.
Could it just be some low turbulence design?
Did you see the pipe? Did it have a kind of honeycomb structure on the inside? (imagine a Pringles can filled with straws.)
Quote from: Emo Howard on July 20, 2012, 11:14:18 AM
Could it just be some low turbulence design?
Did you see the pipe? Did it have a kind of honeycomb structure on the inside? (imagine a Pringles can filled with straws.)
Thats what what I imagined re: catalyst design, sure, low turbidity, however, assuming it works, I was thinking more along the lines of making otherwise ornery plants, like crazy orchids, thrive.
Quote from: Golden Applesauce on July 20, 2012, 02:28:32 AM
Do you have a link?
Not sure how that would help plants directly w/o lining their capillaries with the stuff, but it would require less pumping to move the same volume of water through the same diameter pipe, so that's energy savings. I don't think it would be that significant on just water though, although I could see that being a big deal for some industrial process that needs to pipe viscous gunk all over the place.
Fluidity just helps dispersion through whatever medium. It's about helping the transport of capillary motion, I think.
The way i imagined it:
The surface of the pipe interacts with the water-surface passing it in a way that makes that passing easier, it won't have much of an effect on the fluidity of the water not touching the pipe, merely negate any 'stickyness' within the pipe.
So the moment it leaves the pipe it would lose any benefit.
For the pipe to have a lasting effect on the fluidity of the water:
- It would have to leave a substance in it, in which case the pipe will slowly dissolve or the active ingredient needs to be replenished requiring the pipe to be disassembled.
- Or it could catalyse a change in a substance solved into the water but that would have to be an addition to the water before it enters the pipe because none of the normally occuring substances in water can be catalysed into watertension reducers afaik.
I didn't think of the low turbulence design, interesting idea.
Quote from: :regret: on July 20, 2012, 12:09:48 PM
The way i imagined it:
The surface of the pipe interacts with the water-surface passing it in a way that makes that passing easier, it won't have much of an effect on the fluidity of the water not touching the pipe, merely negate any 'stickyness' within the pipe.
So the moment it leaves the pipe it would lose any benefit.
For the pipe to have a lasting effect on the fluidity of the water:
- It would have to leave a substance in it, in which case the pipe will slowly dissolve or the active ingredient needs to be replenished requiring the pipe to be disassembled.
- Or it could catalyse a change in a substance solved into the water but that would have to be an addition to the water before it enters the pipe because none of the normally occuring substances in water can be catalysed into watertension reducers afaik.
I didn't think of the low turbulence design, interesting idea.
Ima gonna try to take another look at this thing. I think SWIM was implying the fluidity would be imparted to last beyond passing through the pipe... The other confusion was the reference to how this increased fluidity would help subsequent capillary motion transport. I think I may be erroneously relating increased fluidity with a decrease in surface tension? Will continue investigation...