The Old Weblog

Welcome to the 2nd edition of Panta Rei, the carnival about heat-n-flo. I am amazed by the flood of fascinating entries that have burst through to my inbox. Each one explores a different aspect of the fundamental concepts of heat and flow. Take your time and read through each one, I am sure that you will not be disappointed. As author of this edition I have taken the liberty to give this edition a title.

Presenting with a drum roll - Panta Rei - Second Edition also known as Panta Rei: What’s the Difference. Kyun? Read on to find out…

I’ve organized this edition in the simplest way possible - the order of the links in the tabs on my browser, Flock.

Dr. Katte presents a vivid description of the way experiments aught to be designed and conducted. He uses temperature measurement as an example. The concepts are clear - keep your data close and your uncertainties closer!

“… truth is more interesting than fiction”, writes Joe Kissell in Megaplumes - the amazing underwater cyclones. Hot water - magma - lenses - swallowed ships (or not) - hammerheads - microbes flourishing in superhot hydrothermal vents all mentioned in the same page as Dan Brown and the Da Vinci Code. This is another reason I enjoy the carnivals - getting introduced to blogs like ITOTD.

Moments before I published, another Interesting Thing of The Day bubbled up - Aquanomy by Morgen Jahnke. I had not clue about the intricacies of studying the types of bottled water. Hmm … interesting.

This next link has some mind-blowing frames of some not-so-simple fluids behaving badly. This is an easy experiment you can replicate in your kitchen. You’ll need some water and lots of corn starch. I really mean it when I say lots. You want a really nice and thick suspension of the starch in water. Make sure you make this in a deep enough container - a tall glass works just fine. Once you have your suspension prepared, stick a spoon into the glass and gently take it out. Easy? Now try pulling it out as rapidly as you can. No, you won’t create a mess. Try it, come back and tell us what happened. Non-newtonian dynamics kicks ass!

Yami McMoots tells us about 2 key advancements that will improve our ability of predicting volcanic eruptions. There’s a whole lot of squeezing and rising going on. The links require paid subscriptions.

We’re not done talking about the ocean yet. There’s more love at Real Climate on the latest numbers on the Ocean’s Heat Content. Earth’s oceans have the largest contribution to the heat capacity of the entire climate system - this means that the temperature of the oceans is a valuable metric in determining the net loss/gain in heat of the planet. Gavin’s post addresses recent data (pdf) that shows a decrease in the ocean’s heat content in the time period 2003 - 2005. Data, analysis, criticism, commentary - some of the ways in which science progresses. Be careful, heavy discussion follows.

Moving on from the macro to something that affects all you folks reading this - cooling in computers. Bad things can happen when your electronics are not cooled efficiently. Arunn tells us how important it is to dissipate heat quickly. He presents two conceptual designs and is looking for folks to fulfill the challenge of taking these to market.

For the historical post of this edition, Arunn lets lose on some history with a lucid description of a Convection Carnot Engine. He also introduces some elementary concepts in thermodynamics. So if you are afraid of equations take a peak - you won’t regret it.

The past two weeks were historical for the field of theoretical physics. We are a step closer to understanding the nature of the dark components of the universe. Sean has written perhaps the most comprehensive, easy to read and heavily linked post on the topic of Dark Matter. Read and soak!

Politics, sound waves and CSNY fans collide and create mystical psycho-acoustics. Jim finds himself mesmerized and tells us about his experiences with photons and pressure waves.

It gets wilder as Srinivasa spews out caffiene laden tales of heat transfer. Here’s another reason to stay away (or not) from the caffiene high.

Sealing up the flow of the 2nd Edition of Panta Rei I have a post from my own blog @ Kyun.org. Those who follow the news from India will have heard about the Onionesque headlines about sewage water and milk. I was amused by the outrage expressed by the blogosphere and the established media. My question to all those expressing anguish - What’s the Difference?

Look out for calls for hosts and posts for future editions of Panta Rei at any of your neighborhood, fluid-minded blogs. Until then, read and enjoy.