Tarmac/Asphalt difference?

[John Brown]

Anyone know what is the difference between tarmac and asphalt?

[hawgeye]

[PeterD]

For most purposes, none...

What kind of information are you looking for? Both are 'hydrocarbon' based substances mixed with stone and/or sand for body and wear resistance.

[John Brown]

================ Just that really..would like to know exactly what the difference is between the two..I goggled them but that just seemed to confuse :-) ...who knows the answer? Cheers, John

[RicodJour]

That Wiki link posted earlier is quite clear in the description. Click on the 'Macadamized' link for more info.

R

[Steve]

"John Brown" wrote on 05 Apr 2008 in group alt.building.construction:

Tarmac is a construction technique where tar is added to the standard Macadam process for building a dirt road. Macadam, in a nutshell, is large gravel covered with smaller gravel covered with even smaller gravel covered with sand or dirt and all packed down firmly.

Asphalt is a chemical mixture of hydrocarbons that is very close to solid at outdoor temperatures. It's what's left over after all the gasses and liquids are removed from petroleum. If you mix hot asphalt with gravel and sand, you get what my brother-in-law the architect calls "asphaltic concrete" (as opposed to "cementitious concrete"). He also insists that I not call it a "hot water heater", because there's no need to heat hot water -- it's a "water heater". I like him anyway.

"Tarmac" is sometimes used to refer to asphaltic concrete; it's also used to refer to the part of the airport where they park airplanes. Picky people will tell you these are wrong, but the use is very common.

Note: These are layman's definitions from working in the oil field and from long-ago college chemistry classes. If you want the technical ones, you'll have to do your own search.