Bob wrote: >Justing wrote: >>Haven't you ever seen a phase diagram?
>Sigh. Yes. Here's one, for water: ><http://wine1.sb.fsu.edu/chm1045/notes/Forces/Phase/Forces06.htm> >And your point is? Let's see, if we rapidly cool boiling water by >dispersing it in supercold air... somewhere past the triple-point, it >goes straight through the solid state, do not pass go, and >*sublimates* directly into the air. >Now, maybe, it freezes at the molecular level, or something, first. >But to the observer, it never reaches a solid state, and it turns >directly into a gas. It sublimates. >My understanding is that it has something to do with the extreme >temperature differential. Like you get with a bunch of boiling LNG >floating on the Mystic River under the Tobin Bridge. Which is what >that guy from the USDOE said. The argument here is over your use of the word 'sublimate'. Liquid water can't sublimate by definition, since its a liquid. We're saying that your chemist friend is using the word incorrectly. That's all. Peter