Summary of Mark Miodownik's Liquid Rules

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 Kerosene is a liquid made of carbon-based molecules that, on the atomic scale, looks like spaghetti. Olive oil is a gloopy liquid made of carbon-based molecules that, on the atomic scale, looks more like twirled spaghetti.

#2 The Persian physician and alchemist Rhazes developed special chemical procedures to extract kerosene, a liquid made of carbon-based molecules that looked like twirled spaghetti. It was flammable and produced a smokeless flame. It would take another thousand years for the Persians to discover an alternative source of energy and tax revenue.

#3 The structure of liquids is intermediate between the chaos of gas and the static prison of solids. This allows them to flow and maintain a flame, which is a basic principle of liquids.

#4 The structure of liquids is intermediate between the chaos of gas and the static prison of solids, and this allows them to flow and maintain a flame. This is a basic principle of liquids.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Sep 9, 2022
• ISBN: 9798350001556

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Insights on Mark Miodownik's Liquid Rules

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 10

Insights from Chapter 11

Insights from Chapter 12

Insights from Chapter 13

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

Kerosene is a transparent, colorless fluid that looks like water. Its structure is like spaghetti, and it is comprised of carbon-based molecules all jumbled up together. Olive oil is more viscous than kerosene, and it is flammable.

#2

The Persian physician and alchemist Rhazes wrote about his discovery of kerosene in his ninth-century Book of Secrets. He developed special chemical procedures to analyze the black oil, and he heated it up and collected the gases that were expelled from it. He then cooled these gases down again, and they were transformed back into liquid.

#3

Oil lamps evolved over the years. The design of a ninth-century oil lamp is simple, but it is remarkably sophisticated. It is hard to light because olive oil has a high flashpoint, which is the temperature at which a flammable liquid will spontaneously react with the oxygen in the air and burst into flames.

#4

Plants have mastered the same surface-tension effect as the pond skater insect. They pull water up against the force of gravity, from the ground into their bodies, using a system of tiny tubes that run through their roots, stems, and leaves.

#5

The use of whale oil in Argand lamps skyrocketed in the late eighteenth century. From 1770 through 1775, the whalers of Massachusetts produced forty-five thousand barrels