Subject:
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Re: Hot Paper?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.geek
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Date:
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Tue, 28 Nov 2000 16:22:33 GMT
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Viewed:
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350 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.geek, Dave Schuler writes:
> In lugnet.off-topic.geek, Matthew Miller writes:
> > For that matter, even in its approximate vacuum, the sunward face of
> > Mercury is hot enough to boil lead.
> >
> > Sure, it'll get hot, but boiling is way different from burning.
>
> Now we're getting somewhere! But what would happen to the paper once it
> got that hot? That's what I was trying to get at in the first place...
Note that I think the LDEF had some paper/cardboard panels, you might try
spelunking the NASA site for the writeup on what happened to them. I could
be misremembering, maybe LDEF only had metal and plastic panels. But there
were over 500 of them, right? So maybe one or two were...
I will stick with my original answer. As the paper heats, first any internal
oxidizing agents trapped in the interstices that haven't yet made their way
to vacuum will be used up. Depending on how many there are, the paper may
take on a brownish tinge, or even char. I don't know how long molecular
oxygen stays "inside" paper because I don't know how porous the fibers are,
but I would expect very little to remain so not much of a brownish tinge.
As the paper heats further (and I don't remember enough chemistry to quote
cellulose bond strengths) at some point the heat will be high enough to
increase the rate of disassociation to the point where the paper will
disintegrate, turn into a cloud of cellulose strands, and eventually break
down into free radicals (CH2, CH3, and CHOH groups)...
That's my answer and I'm sticking to it.
++Lar
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Hot Paper?
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| (...) Now we're getting somewhere! But what would happen to the paper once it got that hot? That's what I was trying to get at in the first place... Dave! (24 years ago, 28-Nov-00, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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