John Fields wrote:
On Tue, 14 Jun 2005 08:32:09 -0800, (Floyd L.
Davidson) wrote:

Dr. Polemic wrote:
On Tue, 14 Jun 2005 01:14:42 -0800, (Floyd L. Davidson) wrote:

Dr. Polemic wrote:
Danged, several weeks of work shot because it just hadn't
occurred to him that ni-cad would boil at room temperature.

I doubt that it *boils* at room temperature; evaporates slowly, maybe. At least, not at
the temperature of any rooms I've been in.

Oh, it boiled off!

So, tell me, what is the vapor pressure of Cadmium at 20 degrees C?

I don't know. Look it up.

Takes a nice little vaccuum pump to do it though.

---
Yer fulla ****.

Well John, it probably was cadmium plating, not ni-cad. And I'm
not sure what the actual temperature was, though it certainly
wasn't much above room temperature (the experiment failed before
it was exposed to significant nuclear radiation, which would
have provided heat).

However, the metal plating on the hardware boiled!

Here's a chart you might want to look at. Note the relative
vapor pressure of cadmium compared to other metals. Then think
about "a nice little vacuum pump".

http://www.veeco.com/learning/learni...orelements.asp

My point, since it went right over your head when stated as a
puzzle, is that temperature alone is not what defines when
something "boils", and some materials that you wouldn't normally
think of in terms of a vapor can in fact "boil". "Out-gas"
might be a better term.

--
Floyd L. Davidson http://web.newsguy.com/floyd_davidson
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska)