ilaboo wrote:

>> <LOL> Could you be more relentlessly and consistently dense? Leaving
>> it "open for a few hours" would have done virtually nothing to drive
>> off the alcohol.
>
> lets try and see what happens to the alcohol content of wine after a
> "few hours"
>
> i dont have access to chemically quantifying alcohol so we will have to
> come up with something simple

Hygrometer. Look it up. Hydrometer. Look that one up, too.

> i understand that using a straw and a razor blade one could make a very
> sensitive balance
>
> i will make the assumption that since alcohol is much more volitile than
> water then the initial weight loss will be due to alchohol and not water

Alcohol *alone* is more volatile. In solution, it will change. Physics
101.

There's a technical name for the type of mixture alcohol and water
make. When you know that and its definition, you'll begin to see the
flaw in your assumption.

Azeotrope. Look it up.

Alcohol remaining preparation
100% Immediate consumption
70% Overnight storage
85% Boiling liquid, remove from heat
75% flamed baked or simmered:
40% 15 min.
35% 30min.
25% 1 hour
20% 1.5 hour
10% 2 hours
5% 2.5 hours
(from Agricultural Research Service 1989)

> i will balance a glass of wine and see how much weight is lost in a "few
> hours"--remember i cannot control for temperature and relative humidity

So the "experiment" has open and ill-defined parameters and guesses
about the physical properties being examined. Just like the other one
you heralded with great fanfare.

Pastorio

> cthulgling has not reveiled anything about the volitility of alcohol
> (ethyl) and water mixtures so teh whole experiment if full of lots of
> holes--but lets see what happens
>
> anyone out there have access to a scale that can weigh to at least 0.001
> milligrams?
>
> peter