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]