Re: BOOKS: The Secret Life of Dust

From: Spike Jones (spike66@attglobal.net)
Date: Fri Mar 01 2002 - 12:16:56 MST


Amara Graps wrote:

> Dear Spike,
>
>> Referring to rocket exhaust as sapphire dust is a bit of a stretch. {8-]
>
>
> Now I'm confused.
>
> Brian said 'spits', but he described no physical process. Sapphire is
> aluminium oxide, isn't it?

Ja, but we usually think of sapphire as an orderly crystal. I imagine the
stuff that comes out of a solid rocket as a mixture of amorphous
oxides of aluminum. I think his referring to it as sapphire dust
may have been poetic license. {8-] spike



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 09:12:43 MST