At home today I was watching a candle burning. I think capillary actions aren’t completely understood and I am guessing that no matter how tall a candle is the capillary actions will continue until the wick becomes inefficient and burns out?
I then thought about trees and transpiration…are they the same things perhaps?
depends more on the length of wick above the molten wax, not the total candle length as such
SCIENCE said:
depends more on the length of wick above the molten wax, not the total candle length as such
yes.
okay but is the way water transpirates (is that a word) from the stomates of leaves and pulls up through the tree the same system as the capillary system of a candle the heat evaporates the water vapour that is released the burning process of the wax through the candle seems similar to me; even though different fluids are involved…. they are both climbing up through fibrous materials ie the wick and the innards of the tree.
ratty one said:
okay but is the way water transpirates (is that a word) from the stomates of leaves and pulls up through the tree the same system as the capillary system of a candle the heat evaporates the water vapour that is released the burning process of the wax through the candle seems similar to me; even though different fluids are involved…. they are both climbing up through fibrous materials ie the wick and the innards of the tree.
transpire, transpires, transpiration.
It isn’t quite the same but don’t let that dishearten you.
roughbarked said:
It isn’t quite the same but don’t let that dishearten you.
I did something similar in French recently.
I meant to say “i hope you enjoy this” (j’espère que vous l’appréciez).
Instead, i said j’inspire vous l’appréciez</I> (“i inhale – you enjoy this”)
captain_spalding said:
roughbarked said:It isn’t quite the same but don’t let that dishearten you.
I did something similar in French recently.
I meant to say “i hope you enjoy this” (j’espère que vous l’appréciez).
Instead, i said j’inspire vous l’appréciez</I> (“i inhale – you enjoy this”)
roughbarked said:
So you aren’t Alexander Downer then?
Oh, no, i could never compare myself with the late-20th-century’s equivalent of Oscar Wilde.
ratty one said:
At home today I was watching a candle burning. I think capillary actions aren’t completely understood and I am guessing that no matter how tall a candle is the capillary actions will continue until the wick becomes inefficient and burns out?I then thought about trees and transpiration…are they the same things perhaps?
They’re not the same thing. Trees work using a multistage pump. Come to think of it, I wonder if trees have some muscle-like micro-contractions that make the pump into an intermittently operated positive displacement pump. If so, then that would more easily explain transpiration.
Capillary action is pretty well understood except for changes in surface energy created by chemical reactions at the surface of the capillary. I’ve done a bit of work on that myself.