OT Mueller debunks BUZZFEED Story

I got into it with my 7th grade science teacher over steam. Steam is the gaseous phase of water and is not visible. He was adamant that steam, not condensed vapor, was visible. I liked the guy and was too naive to realize he would nurse a grudge for the rest of the year.

It all depends on what the definition of is is.

In science class, definition 2a:

the invisible vapor into which water is converted when heated to the boiling point

No need to quibble about people talking about "steaming up their glasses", or any other casual use of the term. But even in junior-high science class, steam is invisible.

Cindy Hamilton

Not so fast, Lefty. 2b is relevant as well:

It appears that steam consists of two parts, the invisible vapor and the visible condensate mist

Yes, to the casual observer, but the discussion was about the usage in the field of SCIENCE. There is a difference. I can see someone calling the visible stuff coming out of an open steam line steam, but once it's clear the discussion is about science and the discussion is clearly focused on what exactly it really is, then the visible condensate is the liquid phase not the gas phase, which is steam.

Oh, how times have changed. In 1990 I was characterized as "slightly to the right of Attila the Hun". Right has moved so far right that I'm now left.

Cindy Hamilton

Don't worry Cindy. You appear to be a thinking person and that means hope for you. You will never lean as far left as the current crowd in DC.

And, BTW, you are correct on the definition as rbowman points out.

I was a boilerman in the USN. Three and half years in the fireroom. My boilers had 600 F water in the water drums. And 900 F steam in the superheaters, water pump power heads and forced draft blower power heads. I lit my cigarettes in holes punched in the insulation. Never once did I or any other boilerman call steam leakoff "water vapor." I never heard a machinist mate call it water vapor either. It was called "steam." When a bottom blow line exploded and we abandoned the fireroom, we said it filled with steam, not "water vapor." Nobody even called it "wet" steam. But that's boilerman talk. High schoolers can call it whatever they want to. Didn't matter to us.

Thank you for your service Vic.

Same to you, Oren.

Fortunately science the world over isn't explained, defined and governed by boiler operators. Following your logic, the visible condensate above a hot shower is actually "steam". If it was, a person taking a shower would be cooked. Others already explained the difference between the science definition and casual, colloquial usage of the word. If I saw a pot boiling and vapor above it, I'd say the pot is steaming too. But I would immediately agree with a science student who pointed out that it's really water vapor condensing that we're seeing.

What grade were you in when you started correcting people?

This is alt.home.repair, not alt.pedantic.wannabe-scientists

Likely nursery school- - - -

Hanlon's Razor - Never attribute to malice what can be explained by ignorance

Occam's Razor The simplest explanation is more likely to be true than one requiring imagination (paraphrazed)