burning ice cubes

[The Ninjas Doom]

is it possble to burn ice?

[Swimmin' Salmon]

yes

[The Ninjas Doom]

my picture is probobly done with specal effects and i ment at room tempeture

[Monroe]

Burning implies changing the molecular structure of something. Ice melts when fire is involved, but water has the same molecular structure as ice, so it did not actually burn while melting. There might be some kind of process that involved turning frozen H2O into something that is not water that I do not know of. No, ice can not be set on fire if that's what you are asking. Mainly because ice does not exist at the same temperatures that fire exists at. Technically neither of them exist at room temperature.

[Niemand]

Quote:

there might be some kind of process that involved turning frozen H2O into something that is not water that I do not know of

You could bombard it with gamma-rays to photodisintigrate the atoms into different elements (the oxygen anyway, you can't really photdisinitigrate protium), or do something similar with neutrons to split nuclei or build them up into different nuclides. Aside from the fact that you would probably break up the molecules anyway, since the atoms would no longer be hydrogen and oxygen the resulting material would not be water. Transmutation of elements is really simple, just also really impractical.

[Øther]

YOu can blow up ice with thermite.

[Dantius]

I think that you can explode dry ice (solid nitrogen),m and you can do all kinds of cool stuff with liquid nitrogen, but standard H20 ice is pretty boring.

[A less presumptuous name.]

Originally Posted By: Dantius

dry ice (solid nitrogen)

Dry ice is solid Carbon Dioxide. And liquid nitrogen is much colder than dry ice. So clearly they can't be the same compound.

[cfgauss]

Combustion reactions are oxygen plus some other reactant, often made of some hydrocarbon in the usual kinds of ones we see... So, no, there's no reaction of H2O + O -> stuff.

 

There is however, a reaction,

2H + O -> H2O + heat

 

So you can burn hydrogen to give you water. But water will not burn in that sense.

 

edit:

Some about the chemistry of water on wikipedia's better-than-average but still disorganized and not so well-written page on H2O,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H2O

[Celtic Minstrel]

No, you cannot burn ice. Burning involves adding oxygen, so you can't burn things that are already oxygen-saturated, such as water or glass.

[The Mystic]

Originally Posted By: Celtic Minstrel

you can't burn things that are already oxygen-saturated, such as water

Oh, I don't know, there's always the chance of adding another oxygen atom to make hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)...

What I've always wondered is when happens when you try to boil water in a paper container over a campfire.

[Alorael at Large]

If the paper is permeable to water, it may or may not burn sluggishly. It probably will char, though, until the water bursts through the bottom. If the paper is waxed, it will catch on fire, a hole will burn through the bottom, and the water will dump out.

 

—Alorael, who has determined these truths through rigorous, double-blind thought experiments.

[Niemand]

Quote:

rigorous, double-blind thought experiments

Those are ones where you don't know what you're thinking, and your thoughts don't know who's thinking them, right? It works wonders for eliminating biases, but collecting the results is rather tricky.

[cfgauss]

I recall seeing someone boil water in a plastic container on one of those discovery channel survival shows (I forget which). I think they wrapped it in green leaves or something though.

 

Originally Posted By: Niemand

Quote:

rigorous, double-blind thought experiments

Those are ones where you don't know what you're thinking, and your thoughts don't know who's thinking them, right? It works wonders for eliminating biases, but collecting the results is rather tricky.

 

I'm reasonably sure this is the method most students in the classes I've taught / TAed use.

[Student of Trinity]

Old Boy Scout manuals used to tell you that you could boil water in a folded paper cone. I've read it in a couple of them. It might have been important not to get the paper too close to the flame, but I'm not sure. What I don't clearly recall at the moment is how you were supposed to hold the cone over the fire at all without cooking your fingers. Some tricky construction with sticks, I expect, that might have worked better with 19th century paper. Or maybe they imagined that you'd have paper and string, or even wire, but no pot.

 

I've never tried it. Any times I've been out in the wilderness with the makings of a fire and potable water on me, I've also had a metal cup, and more interest in getting some hot coffee than in testing bizarre cooking techniques.

[Monroe]

If you don't have any paper cones on hand, a

instead. That's why I always keep a couple of them in my wallet.

[Student of Trinity]

Be Prepared.

[Lilith]

Paper conducts heat pretty well, and water is a great heat sink. The paper will reach 100 degrees Celsius, at which point the evaporation of water prevents it from getting much hotter.

 

On a related note, if anybody ever bets you that you can't hold a dollar note against your forearm for long enough to burn through it with a cigarette, don't take the bet.

[waterplant]

Originally Posted By: Monroe

If you don't have any paper cones on hand, a

instead. That's why I always keep a couple of them in my wallet.

'self-esteem's important' - hilarious. Cool clip.

[Celtic Minstrel]

Originally Posted By: The Mystic

Originally Posted By: Celtic Minstrel

you can't burn things that are already oxygen-saturated, such as water

Oh, I don't know, there's always the chance of adding another oxygen atom to make hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)...

I suppose, but hydrogen peroxide isn't as stable as water. So it'd have to be in an oxygen-saturated environment, I guess.

[Student of Trinity]

Originally Posted By: Lilith

On a related note, if anybody ever bets you that you can't hold a dollar note against your forearm for long enough to burn through it with a cigarette, don't take the bet.

Especially not if if you stand to win less than a dollar.

I'll concede them unlimited expertise in bar bets, but what do Australians know about paper currency, anyway? Your dollar notes are plastic. Canada is going to copy this soon, and actually buy its notes from Oz. For how much? Hmm.

[Lilith]

We don't actually have dollar notes anyway. Everything up to $2 is a coin; the smallest denomination of banknote is $5.

[Student of Trinity]

That's true in Canada as well, in fact. Presumably because it's part of the global currency convergence conspiracy of the Gnomes of Zurich. Already, all US and Canadian coins are of exactly the same sizes, except that there is not yet any US $2 coin.

[The Mystic]

Originally Posted By: Student of Trinity

there is not yet any US $2 coin.

We do, however, have a $2 bill. It's grossly underused and fairly unpopular, but it's still legal tender.

[Lilith]

Apparently some strip clubs like to give change for drinks in the form of $2 bills so that the dancers get larger tips.

[Øther]

I think that I have 5 of those things...

[Dikiyoba]

So basically all $2 bills get their start in strip clubs and eventually meet their end in the piggy banks of people who collect them because they're somewhat rare.

 

Dikiyoba.

[The Ratt]

Does anyone know if $2 work in vending machines? Because if they don't, that's a serious inhibitor of use.

[Rowen]

They do not. Only $1, $5, $10, and $20 work I believe.

[Randomizer]

I have a friend who used $2 bills for buying lunch because he hated the cashier and loved to see her struggle to lift the cash drawer out to put it away. Cash drawers don't have a space for them.

 

Back when Wall Street was booming some stock traders would go to the Federal Reserve cash window and buy bricks of them on Friday to pay for a weekend of partying.

[The Mystic]

Originally Posted By: Lilith

Apparently some strip clubs like to give change for drinks in the form of $2 bills so that the dancers get larger tips.

Ookaaaaaaay....

I didn't need to know something like that, and seriously don't want to know how you do.

[Dikiyoba]

Lilith knows everything.

 

Also, that fact is on the $2 bill's Wikipedia page so it's not like it's super top-secret knowledge.

 

Dikiyoba.

[Student of Trinity]

Strip clubs, okay; but Wikipedia? That's low.