• neptune@dmv.social
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    8 months ago

    Am I stupid if I already believed this to be true and experimentally verified?

    If a photon hits water it heats it up (this is not controversial)

    If a photo hits a water molecule in exactly the right way can’t that cause it to evaporate? We know light can excite an electron.

    • TurboDiesel@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      It’s slightly different from the light just heating the water. The energy of the individual photons colliding with the water molecules causes them to vaporize without heat transfer.

      • scarabic@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Yes and this effect is very small compared to the effect of heat, but when accounted for, it can make a difference at scale, in weather and climate simulation models, for example.

  • Candelestine@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Oh man, I hope this one is real. These are the real fun ones. I didn’t let myself get my hopes up with the superconductor, for obvious reasons, but this ones harder. MIT generally doesn’t fuck around.

  • Dedh@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Well even if it doesn’t bring about the 2nd age of steam for mankind, it should at least be inspiration for a new RP genre - the merging of lasers + evaporation = Cyber + Steampunk?