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Topic: Smoke (Read 3075 times) |
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alien2
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How to measure the weight of the smoke of one cigarette?
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nakli
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Re: Smoke
« Reply #1 on: Aug 3rd, 2010, 11:37pm » |
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In science terms, we'd rather find density or mass or volume of a gas. Weight has no meaning for a gas.
Or maybe you are referring to this nice stoner movie SMOKE [1995]
There's a great line in the movie about how Sir Walter Raleigh measured the weight of smoke. He took a cigar, weighed it, smoked it, and weighed the ash. The difference between the cigar and the ash was the weight of the smoke. Although he new nothing of the chemistry of combustion, he did the best that he could, based upon what he knew. Likewise, Smoke is a movie about people with limited knowledge and perspective. Their assumptions are often wrong; but, they do the best that they can. A small, seemingly insignificant piece of information can, and does, change everything.
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towr
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Re: Smoke
« Reply #2 on: Aug 4th, 2010, 1:31am » |
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on Aug 3rd, 2010, 11:37pm, nakli wrote:| In science terms, we'd rather find density or mass or volume of a gas. Weight has no meaning for a gas. |
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Weight has the same meaning for gas as it does for other things. If it has mass, and is in a gravitational field (or in an accelerating reference frame), then it has weight according to F=m*a. And that is aside from "what does X weigh" usually being shorthand for "what is X's mass".
It would be tricky to measure though. Perhaps you could trap the smoke in a filter, and weigh* the filter before and after.
*as in, determine the mass.
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| « Last Edit: Aug 4th, 2010, 1:31am by towr » |
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Grimbal
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Re: Smoke
« Reply #3 on: Aug 5th, 2010, 1:42am » |
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It depends what you call smoke.
Smoke is mixed with air. The more you wait, the thinner the smoke becomes and the more volume it takes. So the weight of the smoke is mostly the weight of the air, but you cannot really draw the line between the smoke and the surrounding air.
Besides air, smoke is made of fine ashes, CO2 and water vapor. If it burns without flames, it could also include gases like methane. And I believe these weigh more than the cigarette because it includes the oxygen taken from the air.
Rayleigh's experiment is correct, except that he should add to the weigh the oxygen consumed in the process. Burn it in a sealed container and measure the oxygen level before and after the combustion.
This being said, I have no idea how measuring the level of oxygen works.
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| « Last Edit: Aug 5th, 2010, 1:43am by Grimbal » |
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towr
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Re: Smoke
« Reply #4 on: Aug 5th, 2010, 3:25am » |
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on Aug 5th, 2010, 1:42am, Grimbal wrote:| It depends what you call smoke. |
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I would choose to limit it to the particulate components.
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Noke Lieu
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Re: Smoke
« Reply #5 on: Apr 2nd, 2012, 8:35pm » |
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Me too.
Whilst it's an intersting point about smoke being the particle/air mix, if you let smoke settle, you wind up with just the particles.
I too would draw teh smoke through a filter. A *bit* finer than the one on the end of the cigarette. Possibly with some activated charcoal. And measure the change in mass thereof.
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keithgilabert
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Keith Gilabert, "Smoke?"
« Reply #6 on: May 22nd, 2012, 9:56pm » |
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I'm not sure, you need to determine the matter of smoke in the lungs...right?
just my humble guess.
Keith Gilabert
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