Radio frequencies help burn salt water

[hermanntrude]

still kind of cool. Making water appear to burn.

But i'm pretty sure there's no energy to be had here since all you're doing is breaking water molecules and then re-forming them.

 

[#juan]

still kind of cool. Making water appear to burn.

But i'm pretty sure there's no energy to be had here since all you're doing is breaking water molecules and then re-forming them.

Therein lies the problem....at least for an ignoramus like me. Heat will be given off in the re-forming and lost to the experiment. Doesn't this mean that that heat has to be made up somewhere, presumably by the radio frequency generator?

 

[hermanntrude]

yes, you're correct. IF, however, as I originally had assumed (without thinking it through) the water had burned like coal does, generating something OTHER than the original fuel, thus releasing some of the energy stored in the bonds, this'd be a good thing. But i'm pretty sure hydrogen only forms water upon combustion

 

[#juan]

One other question. Does the water need the salt in order to "burn"? I know salt is an electrolyte but is it required for this experiment?

 

[lone wolf]

What is the reaction then when you get sea water in batteries - or am I watching too many submarine movies?

Wolf

 

[hermanntrude]

the salt must be part of the process that allows radio frequencies to dissociate the water molecules. I'm not sure how, though, but I expect if radio waves dissociated pure water, we'd have noticed it by now.

 

[#juan]

What is the reaction then when you get sea water in batteries - or am I watching too many submarine movies?

Wolf

Well, batteries are full of acid and salt water is a base.......That's about all I can say about it. Hermann is the chemist here...He'll tell us...

 

[karrie]

salt water is an electrolyte, just a weaker version of what's in batteries, according to my limited chemical knowledge.

 

[hermanntrude]

karrie has it on the nose, I think.

I'm honestly not too good on electro-chemistry, though.