• bizarroland@fedia.io
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    1 month ago

    Some part of me believes that water cannot get so hot that it would cause metal to Glow.

    I would be happy to be proven wrong.

    I mean, unless you’re saying that the pipe is heating the water inside of it? Which at that temperature that water would be expanding to over a thousand times its size and would probably blow that line to smithereens.

    • MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      edit-2
      1 month ago

      Steam has no limit to how hot it can get. Until it eventually transitions into plasma of course. By then the oxygen and hydrogen would have separated, I imagine. Then it’s no longer water.

      Superheated steam was a problem in some steam locomotives, as running the water level too low would allow the boiler to reach temperatures that would compromise the integrity of the metal.

      Only liquid water has the boiling point as a “limit”.