>From what I saw of their experiment, the thermocouples (k-type) measuring the two vessels were connected in series so that the measurement that came out on the wires was the temperature difference between the two. This may be more accurate than having two absolute thermocouples and subtracting to get a small temperature difference. I believe that the temperature of the empty vessel was presumed to be the temperature of a thermocouple in the "air" nearby.
This portion of the setup is certainly worth some clarification by the authors. On Tue, Oct 20, 2015 at 12:53 PM, H Veeder <hveeder...@gmail.com> wrote: > > On Oct 20, 2015 1:41 PM, "Jed Rothwell" <jedrothw...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > H Veeder <hveeder...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > >> It seems to me that based on the given data it is possible to interpret > the temperature difference between the empty vessel and the vessel with > "fuel" ( their quotation marks) as resulting from either endothermic > activity or exothermic activity in the vessel with "fuel". > > > > > > How can you have an endothermic reaction with an empty vessel? > > > > I didn't suggest that. The paper only gives the relative temperature > difference between the two vessels. We are not provided with absolute > temperature measurements of each vessel. Are we to assume that absolute > temperature measurements were made so the fueled vessel was known to be > hotter? > > Harry >
