On Sun, 16 Jan 2005 04:35:23 GMT, "K. James" dood@nowhere vaguely
proposed a theory
.......and in reply I say!:

remove ns from my header address to reply via email


"Water exists as a liquid and a gas, right?"
"Yeeesss...Kind of. I think. Not sure that steam is a *gas* exactly,
but..."
"Well, water is steam in a compressed state, right? And you heat water to
make it expand into steam, right? And when steam cools, it condenses back
into water. So wouldn't that violate the gas laws?"

"Uh, well technically, no, but ah, state change uses energy, and
thermodynamics and stuff like that there, and uh, yes, violations, no
uhhh, kinda, sorta......ahem. Umm."

You have the answer there. Water is not "steam in a compressed state",
really. Change of state does require energy. Steam is gas. Actually
the steam you can _see_ is condensing already to form water vapour,
IIRC.

Gases occur when the molecules get enough energy to break apart from
their liquid state and move about independently.

So if you add heat to water fast enough it changes to steam (gas)
which takes energy. Leave it to give up heat, and it changes back to
water and it gives out energy. Solids and liquids are not quite as
dramatic as liquids to gases.

Water _would_ be steam in a compressed state, under enormous pressure,
at constant temperature above 212 F. This takes _inout_ of energy, to
do the compressing.