I can't stop thinking about fridges and winter. Would it save much energy to freeze gallon containers of water outdoors and put those in the fridge now and then? It's Minnesota winter over here and I want to make the most of it ;)
posted by advicepig on Feb 21, 2008 - 17 answers

ScienceFilter: Creationists, crystals, and thermodynamics. [more inside]
posted by XMLicious on Feb 6, 2008 - 19 answers

It's obvious that none of the current energy producing methods we have has enough power to make say space travel affordable and fast for everyone. So no Star Wars / Jetsons type flying spaceships and cars for now. But are there any up and coming energy sources that will be able to do this? [more inside]
posted by riffola on Aug 9, 2005 - 8 answers

When something burns it uses up it's fuel/calorific content and turns into a small blob of black which is known to chemists as 'carbon' and to the rest of us as 'bugger'. This I can cope with.

If you stick the same item (or an unburnt relative of said product) into a deep fat frier and heat it for too long, it goes black and creates this same black substance. There has been no oxygen for the the energy to burn with. Where did the energy go?
posted by twine42 on Jan 22, 2004 - 10 answers