Mom was right. (They usually are.) Heat only flows one way -- from warm to cold. You can let cold air into a house, but you can't let "cold" into a house.
It's like light. When you open the closet door, does the dark rush out?
My wild and crazy brain is now wondering if we could somehow create a Maxwell's Demon with some kind of nanotechnoloigy trick. Some kind of nanotube that lets fast molecules through in one direction. A nanocheck valve.
ETA: Actually, it would seem easier to let slow ones through and trap fast ones...
I'm remembering how home oxygen generators work. A "zeolite-like" compound captures the nitrogen atoms/molecules, letting the mostly pure oxygen through to be contained in a pressure vessel. Back-flushing regenerates the "zeolite-like" compound.
Reminds me of the time back in HS when the chem teacher told us that noble gases could not form compounds. So I asked him what if we ionized the noble gas in a chamber with another noble gas or even, say, ionized sodium vapor--would they combine then?
He laughed, spouting the dicta that no, noble gases do not form compounds. Period.
So what was it, fifty years later, I found out someone had done that. Or at least tried it. Maybe it was in a plasma. Maybe it was unstable. But at least someone else had thought it was conceptually feasible as well as that 15 year old HS student...
Maxwells's Nanotube. Sounds intriguing.
Terry gets more coffee, still harboring a resentment about that hidebound chem teacher.
"Imagination... is silly....
You go around, willy-nilly..."
Terry, 230RN
REF:
http://www.metrolyrics.com/imagination-lyrics-frank-sinatra.html
