Champagne 'smoke' explained -- it is adiabatic cooling
Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2009 9:14 am
When you open a bottle of Champagne or sparkling wine there's a curl of 'smoke' coming out of the bottle.
I've always wondered what it was. Now the phenomenon has been explained in a way understandable to me, and named, in today's Daily Telegraph by Andrea Sella, an inorganic chemist at University College London, and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Senior Media Fellow
"If you look quickly into the bottle you will see a small cloud floating inside that will dissipate in a few seconds: the result of the extremely rapid decompression of the small volume of gas in the neck of the bottle. Because of the speed at which this occurs, there is no time for the energy transfer – heating – to occur. The result is what meteorologists call adiabatic cooling – the temperature plunges to below -30C, causing the water vapour in the gas to condense."
Ms Sella's article is about beer but the effect must be the same -- full article is here. She also explains the formation of bubbles. Very interesting -- see http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/5966 ... -beer.html
I've always wondered what it was. Now the phenomenon has been explained in a way understandable to me, and named, in today's Daily Telegraph by Andrea Sella, an inorganic chemist at University College London, and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Senior Media Fellow
"If you look quickly into the bottle you will see a small cloud floating inside that will dissipate in a few seconds: the result of the extremely rapid decompression of the small volume of gas in the neck of the bottle. Because of the speed at which this occurs, there is no time for the energy transfer – heating – to occur. The result is what meteorologists call adiabatic cooling – the temperature plunges to below -30C, causing the water vapour in the gas to condense."
Ms Sella's article is about beer but the effect must be the same -- full article is here. She also explains the formation of bubbles. Very interesting -- see http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/5966 ... -beer.html