ACHTUNG !

    As so gently pointed out by the list moderator, Mr. Bill  Gruber,
    Mr. Edward Lipinski did so stumble -oops- over the difference in
    heat produced by atmospheric combustion of gasoline and ethanol,
    as expressed below in his posting of 11.20.08.

>We should be aware that little Miss Flatus (look it up) poofed out not
>just gas gas at 92 octane, but mixed with it was ten percent ethanol,
>a 2-carbon alcohol. As you know gasoline gas burns with a red tongued
>flame whereas ethanol burns with a "cool" blue flame, much hotter than
>gasoline.. And, remarkably, smells like movie popcorn since its source
>is field corn.
>
>[Moderator's note: I suspect Mr. Lipinski just writes to get a rant
>out of some of us. So today, I'll bite: ethanol burns COOLER than
>gasoline, not hotter. BIG]

BIG is correct; EL is wrong. The heat of combustion of gasoline is
20,000 British Thermal Units per pound., whereas for ethanol the heat
of combustion is less by 8,000 BTU's at a value of 12,000 BTU's. We
should note, however, that these BTU values do not accurately define a
solute of 92 octane gasoline mixed with a volume of ethyl alcohol, the
BTU value of such mixed solution being beyond my paygrade to calculate.

What's this ? "beyond my paygrade"...now that's an Obamaism if ever I
saw one.

Nevertheless, please accept my apology.

Edward Lipinski, the concocter of LUMPS.

[Moderator's note: EL, no need to apologize, but thank you. And no need
to continue debates about flame temp on the list, (or off the list
either, actually) since it's, umm, rather off-topic.

P.S. To FML readers: in case you're confused by Ed's statement today
and you have a grade school chemistry quiz tomorrow, you're not going
crazy: the heat of combustion in BTUs has no relationship to flame
temperature. BIG]

[Posted in FML 6162]