I´m wierd

[bending_sickle]

Here´s stuff about arsenic which I will find handy in my fics.

And here is an essay about asteroids.

Anyone know the actual boiling-point of blood? To take a literal view on the phrase, "he makes my blood boil"? (And while we´re at it, the freezing-point?)

Witch etmymology: "The origins of the term witch are highly disputed. That the word derives directly from Old English is hard to doubt, but the origins of the Old English words are more problematic. Contraction of witega ('wise man, prophet') is possible. Low German contains wicker (soothsayer). Other possible connections include the Old English wigle (divination), the Proto-Germanic *wikkjaz (necromancer), the Gothic weihs (holy), and the English words victim (in its original meaning for someone killed in a religious ritual) and wicked. Many neo-pagan sources assert that because the root wik- is associated with words meaning "to bend", the original meaning of the word was "one who bends the natural order" (by using magic)." from Wikipedia.

And movie reviews via metaquotes.

Comments

Blood.

[(Anonymous)]

Being a mixture, blood lacks a single boiling point. However, if we look at the 55% of blood that is plasma (the remainder being blood cells, which can't really be said to boil) we can get a rough estimate of a boiling point easily enough. Blood plasma is composed of 0.9% electrolytes, one or two percent organic molecules (coagulants, for example) and water. The organic molecules probably don't have a significant impact on the boiling point, so we're left with the 0.9% electrolytes. For ease of calculation, we'll assume it's 0.9% NaCl. It's not, but a lot of it is NaCl, and the other ions shouldn't affect the answer that much.

Boiling point elevation of a solution is equal to the boiling point elevation constant of the solvent multiplied by the molal concentration of the solute. The molality of 0.9% NaCl will be (roughly) 0.154, and the boiling point elevation constant of water is 0.521 C/m. Multiplied, this gives us the rather tiny boiling point elevation of 0.08C, for a total boiling point of 100.08 C. Presumably the freezing point is some small fraction of a degree under 0C.

So, there's the answer. As best I can figure, blood boils and freezes at effectively the same temperatures as water.

D.