Water Explosion Experiments (OTA)

[st_hotflashes]

Out on a patch a grass, far enough away from the Inn to be safe, but close enough so she wouldn't get any surprises - hopefully - from wildlife that might like her for a snack, Liz had set up an experiment. There were several large containers, some glass, other plastic, all with water inside of them and spaced out from one another. She had a big bag of salt and a small portable stove that she had, with the help of Alec and his strength, enclosed to create more of an oven. She wore gloves, had an apron on, and she had safety goggles on too. She sat near the oven waiting for the salt to melt - the temperature it needed to get to was high.

After some time, she took a long pair of tongs and pulled out a red hot cup. Carefully she walked over to the first basin of water and poured the liquid salt into it. The water exploded and she jumped back a little, then she laughed.

Comments

[st_artandstoke]

There was the sound of breaking glass, and Jag trotted over, slowing down when he spotted Liz laughing, and kitted up to be safe. He joined her. "Chemistry experiment?"

[st_hotflashes]

Liz turned to see who it was and flushed just a little - she always felt like she was walking on eggshells around Jag since her mistKe months ago.

"Oh... Um, yeah. I'm used to doing this sort of thing for school a lot back home, you know, and... I guess it sounds sort of lame, but I miss it." Plus it was fun, but admitting that might very nerd-overboard.

[st_artandstoke]

"How'd you do that, then?" Jag asked, pushing his hair out of his face. It wasn't as if he'd attended school after he'd hit the streets. Drina had made sure to give him some homeschooling, but he had no idea what Liz had just done, and he was curious.

[st_hotflashes]

"Would you like to see?" She offered a smile as she gestured to the little oven and the bag of salt. Then she walked over to the area. "Basically... heating up salt until it melts means the salt is really, really hot. The salt is so hot that the water instantly boils to steam.... As the water contacts the salt it dissolves rapidly, transferring its heat to the water much faster than would happen if the salt did not dissolve. So it sort of makes an explosion, even though technically it's not an explosion at all."

[st_artandstoke]

"An explosion that's not an explosion?" Jag echoed with a confused frown, unsure what that meant.

[st_hotflashes]

Liz tried to think of how to explain it. "Okay, so, when people think of an explosion, they think of a bomb, right? Usually a chemical reaction that's fiery in some way. Well, with the sodium, the water is coming into contact with something extremely hot so the water will vaporize into water vapour. It does it so fast that it creates pressure in the container that's holding it which is why the container explodes... but if it was in, say, a lake or a pool, it might just spout a little water off the top, but you wouldn't have the big crash the tank I just used made." She smiled. "But, I guess you could technically make it into a bomb... when the sodium is as hot as it can get, it can actually make the atoms unstable enough that when it comes into contact with the oxygen in the water, it can create hydrogen gas... so, I mean, it could." And maybe she would keep that part to herself and not tell Rocket - hydrogen gas was very flammable.

She looked to jag and scrunched her nose. "Sorry... I kind of get excited about this sort of thing... but I know not everyone does." And she was hardcore nerding right now.

[st_artandstoke]

"All I got from that's that it's an explosion without fire," Jag answered, slightly sheepish. That had been a lot to try and follow.

[st_hotflashes]

"Sorry." She looked sheepish too. "I'm told I can get carried away when I talk about science. My ex boyfriend used to complain about it a lot." Liz offered a smile though. "Did you want to try it out? It's fun." Even if you didn't understand the science of it.

[st_artandstoke]

"Your ex sounds like a tit," Jag replied with a moue. "But sure. Show me your science." It sounded entertaining, despite the lack of fire.

[st_hotflashes]

Jag wasn't the first person to talk about Kyle that way. Thankfully ever since he found Buddha, he seemed to have really changed his way.

She walked over to the little over and paused. "Actually... maybe you could help? It takes a while for the salt to melt with this." She did, however, remember what he was capable of. Plus it was always more fun with experiments if you felt you had a hand in it, or so she thought anyways.

[st_artandstoke]

"Sure," Jag agreed easily, waiting until she'd filled a cup with salt before he created some flames to burn around it. They went from orange to pale yellow to white, and then blue, as he upped their temperature to get this done faster.

[st_hotflashes]

It was definitely faster and Liz couldn't help watching with fascination. Despite dating Spider-Man and being friends with others who had abilities, the ability to produce fire was still a new one. A part of her couldn't help thinking about Max and the others and how they could manipulate molecules.

When the salt was liquid, she reached for the stick to take hold of the little cup. "Would you like to put it in?" She held out the goggles and the clasping stick for Jag if he wanted it.

[st_artandstoke]

Jag shook his head. "Go for it." He took a step back, even, so he wouldn't be in the way. The truth was, he was afraid of fucking it up somehow. She knew what she was doing.

[st_hotflashes]

She nodded and put the goggles back on, then carefully took the liquid salt - she didn't want it to start cooling off otherwise the effect would be much less impressive. She wondered just how hot Jag had been able to get it compared to the oven - she suspected the answer might be 'a lot'.

Liz moved to one of the still-full tanks and from the farthest possible spot, she poured the salt into the water. It erupted like the other one, bursting the glass and shooting upwards as well. The blast was bigger this time, confirming Liz's suspicions that Jag had been able to heat the material to a higher degree.

A wide smile spread across her face and there was laughter in her eyes.

[st_artandstoke]

Jag's laughter wasn't just in his eyes, but echoing in the wake of what, apparently, didn't qualify as an explosion. It had still made him take a startled step back, even though he'd been expecting it. But once it turned out no harm had been done (well, the tank would disagree), laughter it was. "That was brilliant!"

[st_hotflashes]

His laughter brought a big smile on Liz's face. When she could show people how fun science could be, she really enjoyed herself. Maria was one of those people, especially, because she often sighed or rolled her eyes, professing it was boring.

"My science teacher back home did a sort of smaller version and since the ingredients for it are easy to find here, I wanted to see how it would work on a bigger scale." And she was glad she had.

[st_artandstoke]

"Reckon we could make a geyser out of the pool," Jag said, still smiling brighter than anyone had probably seen on him recently (save for Coby).

[st_hotflashes]

His smile was a little contagious. It was nice to see, too, since she often still felt awkward around Jag from what had happened many months ago. Still, she was glad he liked the experiement.

"Do you think we'd get in trouble?" She paused. "I mean... the pool would probably repair itself, right?" Or maybe it wouldn't be destroyed at all - the ratio could work for it to be an geyser without damage to the pool itself.

[st_artandstoke]

"Everything does," Jag confirmed. He wasn't too worried about getting into trouble; as long as they kept people a safe distance away, it would all be fine. "I don't mind risking it if you don't."

[st_hotflashes]

Liz didn't normally agree to wanton destruction, but the need to let off steam was relatively high. She nodded. "Alright, sure." She smiled. I can probably calculate the right about of salt to make it go high. We'd probably need to throw the liquid salt into the pool somehow." She didn't think her arm thing would be long enough.

[st_artandstoke]

Jag frowned. "Oh. Yeah. Maybe ask someone with telekinesis?" He wondered whether Lilith would help.

[st_hotflashes]

"Maybe." Her might was already trying to think of solutions. "Oh! Maybe we could put a string on either end of a container. Could you heat something up from far away? We could set it up so that when it's hot enough, we just pull the string and the liquid would fall into the pool."

[st_artandstoke]

"Better find some tough metal cable, given the heat I'm bringing," Jag pointed out. A string would just catch fire and snap in no time. Distance was no issue, though.

[st_hotflashes]

She thought about it for another moment. "How about copper? I saw some in one of the maintenance sheds probably meant to fix wiring. The melting point for Copper is 1983 degrees Fahrenheit so it would definitely stay solid long enough for the salt to melt."

[st_artandstoke]

"You're the brains here," Jag agreed with a nod. He was just here to supply heat.

And enjoy the geyser.