Alcohol Based Cooling - Science Fair Project

According to our preliminary plan, John needs a short length of copper pipe to build his alchohol based computer chip cooler. We looked at Home Depot a couple of weeks ago. They had the copper pipe and fittings we needed. Unfortunately, we wanted pipe that was two inches in diameter, and this size pipe only comes in ten foot lengths, which cost about 70 or 80 dollars.

I called Ivo Skora this morning to ask about this pipe. He does not use copper pipe of this large a diameter, and does not know of anyone else who does either. He suggested calling Anctil Plumbing.

I looked up copper pipe on the internet and I found a place that sells it, but it is no bargain:

http://www.plumbingsupply.com/copperpipe.html

They want $46 for a one foot length, $85 for a two foot length.

I talked to Jack about this project the other day, and he suggested using tape as a safety valve. Heating any kind of liquid in a sealed container can be very dangerous. I do not think tape is a good idea, as adhesives gnerally do not do well when heated. I am thinking a rubber cork might do. This is what we used with the water bottle rockets many years ago. The cork should be secured with a cord that it does not go flying across the room in case it does pop off.

The temperatures we are intending to work with should not be dangerous. However, anytime you are heating something, there is the possiblity that something will go wrong, and according to Murphy's law, if something can go wrong, it will. So we must endeavor to ensure that nothing does go wrong.

We may want to keep a fire extingusher handy in case the alchohol is flammable. I was thinking that we could test the rubbing alchohol to see if it will burn. Since it is mixed with water, it may not. However, alchohol has a lower boiling point than water, so if you heat it, you may get a flammable vapor, which could be very bad.

Perhaps we should just stick with water. Or we could test the alcohol version at home, and take the water filled version to the science fair.