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Food is nice. Adults, children and miscellaneous
creatures
have all been demonstrated to enjoy it. A recent
innovation: "hot" food, has caught on with select Earth
inhabitants. Unfortunately, due to physics, hot food
tends
to cool down at a rate proportional to the temperature
differential
between it and the surrounding environs.
Now,
a partial solution:
Take a plate, bowl, mug or whatnot and make it double
walled. You can make it of anything, but stainless steel
has an enviable track record in the catering industry,
whereas strontium would only be useful for VERY fatty
foods. So, then, you fill the gap between the double
walls
with something. The thing has to be a solid at room
temperature and a liquid at a temperature SLIGHTLY
above the best consumption temperature of the food. I
recommend some form of paraffin wax. The details can
be worked out by someone who enjoys graphs and
tedium.
Then we have a plate that may be warmed in the oven
(or
on top of the toaster for the impatient), food is added,
and the whole process of energy transfer can continue
with
mind-numbing inevitability. However, the story for the
temperature will be different. The plate will
miraculously
stay at precisely 65C (or whatever) for a miraculously
long
time. Like a miracle. The consequence being that you
get
a few extra minutes to trawl the TV listings for
something
good to watch with your dinner before the whole lot
becomes unpalatable. Rinse and repeat the same idea
for tea/coffee cups and ice cream bowls. Just swap the
phase change substance.
I see this as a more workable solution to the above
problem than "consistently good TV programs" which is
slightly harder to achieve than perpetual motion.
[link]
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I thought you were hinting at an induction table.
Electromagnets in the table would heat your
silverware, metal plates , shirt snaps etc... |
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BTW I baked perpetual motion a long time ago. Good
TV, not so much. |
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I baked perpetual motion too, but teh oil company took away my machine :( |
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They left me my machine but took my keys! dammit
now it wont start! |
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I think I'd be annoyed with having to heat them in the oven. Why don't we use the same technology used for hand warmers that you recharge by putting in boiling water. As long as the water in your dishwasher is hot enough, they would recharge "automatically" and self heat quite rapidly. |
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Do dishwashers have thermostats to control the heating element? If not, having too many of these might prevent the water in the dishwasher from getting to full temperature. That would apply to this original invention and my suggestion. |
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//graphs and tedium// not so much... find something that phase-changes at your 65C, measure how much heat is released, and make sure its volume doesn't vary greatly... not too complex: Wikipedia could probably handle it. |
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//make sure its volume doesn't vary greatly//
phslunka, the sound made by each persons dish after
the phase change. Properly designed, this flatware
could scare the phslunka out of you. |
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From the title, I imagined a different kind of phase change, and that this would be tableware which transformed your food into a kaleidoscopic riot of interference fringes. |
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//stay at precisely 65// paraffin 6403 (illegal in Salem
due to its witchcraft like properties) |
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//kaleidoscopic riot of interference fringes// |
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How did you know I was in that band? |
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I think the wax should be added to the plate in a
near vacuum and not quite enough wax added to fill
the volume. Then, when the plate is sealed, there
will be a little vacuum bubble for the wax to expand
into when it expands. The plate will be stainless, it
can take the strain. |
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The only problem I can think of is that my micorwave doesn't like steel inside it when it's working.
[+] though, because I like the idea in general.
Perhaps we could use the same oven things they have on aircraft. |
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I put my steel coffee mug in the mic by itself
sometimes, works fine. After all some mics have steel
racks and the mic`s walls are steel. |
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My problem is food staying too hot. |
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