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Re: Under-tank heating coils.
On Thursday, 1 June 1995, Charles Bay wrote:
> One issue was that heat coils IN the substrate would provide better
> granularity for convection currents for better over-all circulation.
> OK, I buy that.
I have a bit of trouble with this assumption. If I were to uniformly heat a
container of water from below, I would expect to see the formation of
roughly hexagonal convection cells, each with warm water rising in a
narrow column at the center and cool water subsiding around it. Buried
wires presumably give rise to linear cells. For a given amount of heat
applied to the system I would expect the same rate of water transport
through the substrate. Why would either system have any advantage over the
other? How can a plant distinguish between linear and hexagonal convection
cells?
--
Kevin Conlin kcconlin at cae_ca "We're Canadians. We HAVE to be polite"