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heat and iron

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Gaston

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why is it if you have a peice of iron that you have cut with a torch or welded on one end ( lets say a rod ). it is cool enough on one end to pick up bare handed. but when you run the hot end under water the heat runs to the other end and you have to let go?
 
Six super dupper bonus points to the most creative answer. :D

Let me start.
You only want to let go. You do not have too.

The real answer is that the end you are holding gets hot because the heat travels down the rod to distribute the hea evenly. Heat flows from hot to cold.

Running the water over the hot end does not cause the cool end to heat up.
 
but running the water over the hot end does make it get hot. try it out
it happens every time. the end that i can hold will never get too hot to hold unless i run it under cold water. the heat runs over to the other side
 
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nope. i'm talking about getting the end cherry red. can anybody back me up on this. anyone else weld or cut with a torch? i can't explain why this happens. this is why i'm asking
 
I've had this happen with tubing and assumed it was steam transferring the heat. I can't see how it would work with a rod.

Mike.
 
Maybe it's too hot for you to feel it and the water cools it down to a temperature that you can feel? Though...you would certainly figure it out sooner or later lol.
 
This idea, heat traveling to cold, or heat distribution is the basis behind a stiring engine. You heat one end and cool the other, causing a thermal flow. This in turn powers the piston to create thermal energy converted into mechanical energy!
 
Are you saying something along the lines of: the thermal energy takes the path of least resistance, and when the hot end it has to go somewhere, but it's easier to travel to the other end of the rod than through the water so most of it there instead rather than the water? Like current and two resistors in parallel?
 
Dude my dad and I both weld and it has never done that to me...but then again I don't ever quench things either and I can't say that I get them "cherry red", I just burn oxygen on them till they're hot enough then turn the acetylene on. But for smaller stock we just got a chop saw and it works really good for pipe and such, especially if your cutting at angles and such. I only use a torch on flat stuff and occasionally when I'm to lazy to get the chop saw out.
 
How about,

The steam cloud generated by quenching the hot end condenses on the cooler steel leaving a vacuum around the rod which draws in more steam which condenses etc. This would have the effect of transferring heat along the rod in a manner that is not possible before quenching.

This is similar to how evacuated solar collectors and heat pipes work.

Mike.
 
it doesn't seem like a steam thing because that would burn the end of my hand closest to the hot end first. this is like the thermal resistance of the iron changes when getting quenched. is it something to do with the molecular change caused by the quenching?
 
Gaston said:
it doesn't seem like a steam thing because that would burn the end of my hand closest to the hot end first. this is like the thermal resistance of the iron changes when getting quenched. is it something to do with the molecular change caused by the quenching?

Are you saying that the end gets hot before the middle?

Steam at 100C can very quickly heat up half the rod and conduction would do the rest to get the end to 50C which you would find uncomfortable.

Mike.
 
It takes time for heat to travel in the iron material because it is thick. Then when you put its hot end in water, the outside layer of it is cooled but the inside is still extremely hot and its heat still travels slowly to the end you are holding.
 
the reason i don't think its steam is because the steam would burn my hand. i've been burned by steam before and its nothing nice.and the heat is coming from were my skin touches the metal, not my skin exposed to the air. could this be some kind of undiscovered force? :D maybe the key to perpeptual motion:D
 
You guys can always get me with my curiousity for science.

I think the water is somehow aiding in the conduction of heat.
If you feel the end you quenched in water it is probably about the same temp as the other .

It would be interesting to experiment.

What do other fluids do ?
Can this principle be applied somewhere else?
 
Look online for stirling engine. I think its like that. It is easy and fun to build! (I asked a mechanical engineer from GM, A electrical engineer, and a bunch of mechanical engineering grads, they told me the basics, and they say there pretty cool, so build one!)
 
Try oil, it has a lower thermal conductivity and heat capacity so it will cool more slowly.
 
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