Talk:Ammonia fountain

Edits by Pwilki
The edit by Pwilki claiming that the ammonia fountain effect is due to condensation of ammonia vapor was incorrect. It has been removed.

Ammonia is a gas at room temperature (its boiling point is -33 C). The classic ammonia fountain demonstration does not make use of the condensation of a liquid vapor, because ammonia cannot condense at room temperature, and in any case the upper flask contains ammonia at room temperature anyway. The article had it right -- the effect is in fact due to the dissolution of ammonia in water, which reduces the pressure in the upper flask.

However, as noted by Pwilki, it is true that a similar demonstration CAN be performed with a liquid vapor. This fact seemed (to me) to be relevant to the article, since it is a reasonable alternative demonstration, so I left it in. However, such a demonstration is not the ammonia fountain and does not demonstrate the dissolution of ammonia in water. The fountain is still created by reduced pressure, but the pressure is reduced by a different mechanism. 71.187.128.246 (talk) 04:00, 8 December 2012 (UTC)