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View Full Version : How much energy would it take to melt a Regice


skarm
10-06-2008, 02:27 AM
i know a lot of you wanted to know this because you told me via pm but one of my friends found out and i wanna show you all, here is what he did:

So, I was bored one day, and I wondered, "How much energy would it take to melt Regice?"

So, I looked at its pokedex entry and found it weighed 385.8lbs and apparently controls air at -328 degrees F, which, for the sake of argument, I'm going to assume is the temperature of its body as well. I also assume for simplicity that it is made entirely of ice. So I did a bit of research and found the specific heat capacity of Ice is 2.114J/gK

So, I did some calculations, and assuming that my math and everything is correct (which I kinda doubt; I was no whiz at Chemistry) I got the following:

Specific heat capacity of ice: 2.114J/gK

Mass of Regice: (385.8lbs)(453.59237g)/(1lb)=1.750x10^5 g [1lb=453.59237g]

Initial Temperature of Regice (In Kelvin): C=(F-32)/1.8=C=(-328-32)/1.8=C=(-360)/1.8=C=-200 degrees C;
C+273=K=-200+273=K=73=K; Initial temperature=73K

Final Temperature of Regice (In Kelvin): C+273=K=0+273=K=273K [Ice begins to melt at 0 C, IIRC).

Change in temperature: Tfinal-Tinitial=273K-73K=200K

So, knowing that, we put it into the formula q=mC(change in temp) [I can't get the thing to do the character delta, for some reason] and that m is the mass of Regice, C is the specific heat capacity of ice, and that q is enthalpy (I think), we get the following:

q=(1.750x10^5g)(2.114J/gK)(200K)

Which solves for

q=7.399x10^7J (g and K both cancel)

Which, converted to KJ, is 73990KJ.

So, assuming all my info and calculations are correct, it'd take approximately 73990 Kilojoules to completely melt Regice. I'm too lazy to figure out what that equates to, but I assume it's a helluva lot of heat.

i helped out by confirming some equations (but he did most of the work) but i really wish he used Celsius so that all of you would have a better understanding since no one i know really uses Kelvin.

Toph
10-06-2008, 02:37 AM
So, that's like 7.4x10^7 J? That's even more than a Megajoule.

That's a lot, and it strikes my curiousity as to how you found all of the equations to go into another equation. I would not think that one could find the energy needed to melt an object with using simply its weight and its temperature. Good job. Maybe if I found out more specifics of its body, you could develop a more accurate answer.

For those of you who don't know:

Joules is the Unit for Energy

Kelvin is equal to 273 + Celcius