Comments by "Hermit Oldguy" (@hermitoldguy6312) on "Understanding Explosions!" video.

  1. In a solid, the atoms are joined together (eg C60 - bucky balls). To melt a solid, you have to break those bonds. Hot atoms can cool down by forming bonds. For a chemical reaction to occur, you might have to break some bonds before making new ones, eg H2 + O2 heat them up to get H + H + O + O, and they cool down by making H2O + O
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  2. You can google the energy of (say) a H-H bond or a C-H bond, etc.
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  3.  @tpog1  Thanks for the links - that stuff's a bit heavy for me. My answer (perhaps buried) was that the soot is formed as a way for atoms to cool down. The emission of light is another way of cooling down. The formation of reaction products is another way of cooling down. The thing is, a hot carbon atom can only bond with another atom it meets. If it's surrounded by oxygen atoms, it can bond with them. If it's surrounded by carbon atoms, what's a hot carbon atom to do?
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  4. A similar question occurred to me regarding stone-age arrow-heads. Firstly, for a given bow, a lighter, faster, arrow gives greater range or reduced travel-time (less time for the prey to run away). Also, a lighter arrow-head, being smaller, might improve penetration.
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  5.  @tpog1  I don't have a mental model for liquids. AfaIcs,either atoms are bound together (solid) or they're not (gas). I can't imagine any other options. Looking at the phase diagram for the triple point of water, itsm liquids only exist in atmospheres - but I'm prolly wrong.
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  6. Thanks for those numbers - amazing stuff.
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  7. "It's only a model."
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