Another minor tragedy struck the household last weekend: Elliot broke the seltzer maker. He didn’t just break it by the expensive piece of plastic junk off the counter, he broke it all to bits inside. He must be practicing to be a parent.
The seltzer maker we have is a fantastically overpriced top heavy contraption, and I’d rather not get in to the politics of where it’s made and by whom. Worse yet they have proprietary lock on their filling system so carbon dioxide which should cost about a buck a pound costs more like 15. In any case now that we’re hooked the eldest boarder will drink nothing but seltzer. (What have we done? He’s all broken inside.)
There were no hurt people parts after the incident, but the eldest retreated to his room to finish eating his dinner, but not before hurling a string of insults at his brother. He could not let the situation go, even though he knows perfectly well who will be paying for a replacement (hint: they’re not indigent).
Elliot’s success in destroying the CO2 dispenser stemmed from the fact that he can’t really reach the water faucet and so turned the hot water on when he filled the bottle. The bottles do say right on them that one should not carbonate hot water, but he’s seven. The sound the machine made was entertaining. It then began spewing water everywhere. When I took it apart (maybe I can fix it!) I realized that the plastic on one of the safety valves had snapped in half. We now have a new one.
But what fun to talk to the children about vapor pressure. The amount of gas that can dissolve in water depends on the temperature of the water. Cold water can hold much more dissolved gas than hot water. So when Elliot tried to force CO2 into hot water it didn’t want to go. This didn’t stop him from trying of course.
Our hot water is nominally set to 120 degrees F. It’s actually a good bit hotter than that as the boss likes baths that hurt, so I had to adjust the water temp and the regulator on the shower. I suspect that if word gets out some kind of plumber thugs might take all my tools. At that temperature water holds a third of the carbon dioxide that cold tap water can.
But why? It has to do with vapor pressure of the gas (carbon dioxide). As the temperature rises, the dissolved gasses are moving around more and can escape the liquid phase into the gas. The amount that “wants” to be in the gas and not in the liquid increases dramatically (exponentially) with temperature.
So how come the air feels dry in the winter shouldn’t cold air hold more water? This is actually an entirely connected phenomenon because the water in the air is a gas and as the temperature drops so does the vapor pressure for the water. Hence the formation of dew as water comes out of the gas phase when the temperature drops. In the middle of the summer liquid water can easily slip away into the gas phase, whereas in the winter water stays liquid, or around here solid. So the air is dry, but if you put your wet clothes out on the line they’ll stay that way. Put them by a nice warm fire and you raise the vapor pressure so they can dry.
Moreover when a cold adult beverage is pulled out of the refrigerator in August it will get a nice coating of condensation around it. In the winter that’s not true. Though I’d argue it’s just as satisfying, and it’ll stay carbonated longer (especially if you stand outside).
