Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with liquid

What is a dense/heavy transparant oil or inert/safe non-water-based liquid?

-harlequin- — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 16:28:15 -0800

I need a crystal-clear transparent liquid that is as heavy (dense) or heavier than water, not dangerous, and not difficult to obtain. The heavier the better. The catch - it can't be water-based. I'm trying to suspend (or at least swirl) a non-soluble coloured powder in a liquid as part of a gift, but I can't use water as this will react with and ruin the powder over time. Oils preserve the powder nicely, but the density of the two that I've tried (baby oil, and liquid paraffin) is too low - they are too light to float the powder for very long and so it settles to the bottom fairly quickly. I can't choose a lighter or more durable powder either, so I'm looking for a heavier liquid.

This list of the density of 150 liquids helps a little, but I don't recognize (by chemical name) most of the liquids, even though some I might already have around the house, so I was wondering if you have any insights.

As with water, reactive chemicals like acid will ruin the powder. (Also, acids are a too much of an irritant/danger to want to put into a gift)

I'm hoping for something I could buy at the local department store or hardware store. I don't really want to order something from a specialist or chemical supplier.

Realistically, I suspect my best bet is a heavy but transparent oil, so it probably won't even be as dense as water, but at least something denser than baby oil. Any idea what that might be?

And if you were wondering, it turns out that paraffin floats on baby oil :-)

Water Sucks

netbros — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 06:18:09 -0800

It seems obvious, but what is the best liquid to drink to prevent dehydration in a desert environment? My father is a stubborn old coot. He does not like water, never has, never will. He isn't about to change in his eighties either. Last summer we went on a vacation to Grand Canyon West. We did all the touristy stuff, walked the Skywalk, rafted the Colorado River, and hiked the canyon rim.

One of the days there, Dad showed all the outward signs of dehydration. Air temperature was well above 100 with single digit humidity, typical Arizona desert summer conditions. All he would drink was his favorite Diet Coke. We told him he was looking dehydrated and needed to guzzle water. He said Diet Coke is mostly water, it has no sugar, it would be perfectly fine for hydration.

To shorten the story, we eventually got him to drink water and everything turned out fine. But the question has remained. Intuitively, it would seem that Diet Coke or some other soda would not be the best solution for desert hydration. Why not, and what are the best fluids to drink when in that situation?

I seek the King of Nutrition Drinks

StrikeTheViol — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 14:06:55 -0800

LiquidNutritionfilter: I know a little about sports nutrition, and a little about parenteral nutrition. Is there a nutritionally complete liquid that healthy people can drink such that the only other necessary is water? If not, what liquid comes closest to being The One Food? If it's not commercially available, what's the closest to it you can buy? Not planning on this myself, just curious about the latest advances in liquid nutrition science.

If you're dumb and you know it, clap your hands.

maniactown — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 18:51:48 -0800

I'm sure this has been covered before but I'm in a small panic, so forgive the indulgence. I just spilled a small (maybe 1/4 oz.) of beer on my MacBookPro. I caught it very quickly and sopped up the liquid with an absorbent towel. However, a small discolored spot has developed in the LCD and I'm wondering what the best way to abate the liquid might be. So, I'm stupid and sat a beer down too close to my laptop (a 15" MBP) and knocked it over a short time later. I caught it very quickly, but a tiny amount of beer landed on the computer near the upper-left hinge at the joint between the screen and the body of the machine. As I type this, there's now a small bright spot in the lower left of the LCD if I view from the right angle... It's as if the surface tension of the liquid drew it between layers of the LCD between the pixels and the backlight, perhaps? It actually looks as if it's drying, but I'm hoping some Genius can tell me the best way to abate said stupid damage to my bread-and-butter machine. tyvm in advance for your help.

Does stirring accelerate cooling?

flyingcowofdoom — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 13:10:11 -0800

Does stirring a mug of hot liquid make it cool faster? Let's say I have a nice, hot mug of coffee. It's too hot to drink at the moment because I got it from McDonald's. Would stirring the coffee with a spoon make it cool down faster? I'm just talking about a gentle stir. I think that stirring it fast enough to create a vortex would accelerate cooling because the surface area of the liquid would increase, but I can't decide if a gentle stir would affect the cooling process. What do you think?

Not planning to try this, just curious

amtho — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 06:56:02 -0800

Has anyone taken ice through airport security? It's a solid, of course, but I wonder (idly) what the reaction would be.

Mars Needs Protein!

Servo5678 — Tue, 19 Apr 2005 15:35:08 -0800

I'm going to be on an all-liquid diet for an undetermined amount of time in order to give my diseased and angry intestines a break. What are some good sources of protein that can be taken in liquid form? Here's the catch: due to my medical condition (ten years with Crohn's Disease) I am on a very restricted diet. I cannot digest any of the following: dairy products (including lactose and whey), fruits, vegetables, nuts, highly acidic drinks, caffeine, coffee, chocolate, alcohol, and a bunch of other minor things.

My liquid diet consists of water, cranberry juice, vanilla Equate (Wal-Mart's non-dairy Ensure), caffeine-free flat Coca-Cola, original green Gatorade, and sucking on hard candies until they dissolve. I take a ton of vitamins everyday as well as B12 injections. I need a source of protein in order to keep up with my daily life. Can anyone recommend such a thing that does not include ingredients from the restricted list?

How do I ship carbonated bevvies overseas?

small_ruminant — Wed, 26 May 2004 16:16:41 -0800

What is the best way to ship carbonated beverages overseas? (In this case it's rootbeer from California to Australia.) Will they explode with the pressure changes?

Can someone explain the red liquid spray patterns that appear on the asphalt of Southern California freeways?

quarantine — Fri, 26 Mar 2004 19:48:33 -0800

Can someone explain the red liquid spray patterns that appear on the asphalt of Southern California freeways? [more inside] A few times a year, I will come across a delta-shaped liquid dispersal pattern on Southern California freeways, usually on the 101 through the San Fernando Valley. The delta expands in the direction traffic flows, starting at a point-ish place and fanning outwards. It's what you might expect to see if you dropped a can of paint off the back of a truck at speed. But if it is "paint off a truck", why is it only red (if there is not selective memory involved here); why not other colors? Pure chance?

Of course, the first thing my mind jumps to is "blood", but the arguments against it being donorcycle street pizzas are [a] I don't think blood would stay that deeply red and [b] I don't think it would be that tenacious on asphalt. But I really don't know what I'm talking about, as my only experience with blood pools is that bastion of scientific integrity CSI (and yes, that's something you'd need a TV to get. :)

I'm usually pretty good at online research, but I don't even know where to start on this one (many of my guesses, not even using the word blood, take me to horror fiction or death fetishism.

Completely unrelatedly, would a U.S. resident here like a free, sealed packet of heirloom flowering tobacco seeds from Seed Savers Exchange? It was included by accident in my recent shipment of seeds, SSE doesn't want them back, I'm surely not going to grow them, and I'd experience more than $0.37 worth of guilt throwing them away. I don't want your address or anything, I'll send to a POB, PMB, your employer, a maildrop, whatever.