View Single Post
Old 8th April 2009, 11:43 AM   #932
ElMondoHummus
0.25 short of being half-witted
 
ElMondoHummus's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Somewhere north of the South Pole
Posts: 12,282
Enough about "nano" being used as a crutch! How many times are we going to have to beat this into the ground?? Nanothermite is thermite, it's just been processed to a finer degree! Nothing - I say again, nothing - about processing changes the energetic property of the reactants!

Does "nano"wood ground to a sandlike state have any more joules/calories/BTU/whatever per gram than wood planks or logs? Does "nano"gasoline have any more heat per unit of mass because it's in smaller drops than gasoline in a cup? No! So why in God's name do we try to handwave the energy differences away with that stupid, ridiculous "It's nanothermite" argument?

Once again: The energy available in a ferrous-oxide/aluminum reduction-oxidation reaction is the same regardless of how fine the individual reactants are ground! What about the fact that this mysterious "nano" property is supposed to change the basic energy available in the redox reaction? And what about the fact that it's some "nano" material is supposed to change the activation energy? Does anyone here advocating this paper even know what "activation energy" is without clicking on either of these links??

Waving the prefix "nano" around like a talisman does not hide the fact that the substance Jones et. al. has tested is not thermite. It's not "nano" thermite, it's not "super" thermite. He's not seeing a rust-aluminum redox reaction! That's basic! When a liquid freezes at some different temperature than 32oF (0oC), do we try to pass it off as "super-water"? Or do we do reach basic intelligent conclusion and realize we're not dealing with water??

Gaaaaah... I can't believe that people are trying to handwave these differences as being due to "nano" thermite. Apples and oranges, NO. They are NOT!
__________________
"AND ZEPPELINS!!! We haven't even begun to talk about Zeppelins yet! Marauding inflatable Teutonic johnsons waggling their way across the sky! Indecent and flammable all at once."
ElMondoHummus is offline   Quote this post in a PM   Nominate this post for this month's language award Copy a direct link to this post Back to Top