REDUX! Re: [pct-l] boiling water

["(R.J.Calliger)" <calliger@infolane.com>]

Also becasue of someones' chem/physics law (Boyles I think: PV=nRT)  the
water boils
at a *lower* temperature at higher altitude..sometimes as low as 160F becasue
pressure affects the temperature at which the water turns into a gas (boiling
definition) and that is LOWERED as the ambient pressure is lowered in
a linear fashion with each other.

Therefore, you need longer to boil to kill the baddies at most altitudes above
5000 feet.

Rich


At 3:15 PM -0800 9/12/00, Brick Robbins wrote:
>At 03:57 PM 9/12/00 , Jack Young wrote:
>>lately I have only been boiling water to a rolling boil and not waiting
>>the 5-10 minutes the USFS and USPS advises.  Someone told me that that
>>was just more over cautous govt diatribe and that once at a rolling boil
>>what is going to die is dead. Am I crazy?
>
>Depends on what you are trying to do.
>
>Their recommendation is based on Bacteria, which is hard to kill with heat.
>
>Giardia, on the other hand, is easy to kill with heat, and just heating
>the water to around 85C will kill it. Not even a need to boil it, but if
>you boil it at all you are safe by a wide margin.
>
>SOOOO you may or may not need to boil for 5 min, depending on what you are
>afraid of.
>
>bacteria:
>-easy to kill chemically (thin skin)
>-hard to filter (small)
>-hard to kill with heat
>
>giardia
>-hard to kill chemically (thick, hard skin)
>-easy to filter (big)
>-easy to kill with heat.
>
>-Brick
>
>-Brick
>
>* From the PCT-L |  Need help? http://www.backcountry.net/faq.html  *



* From the PCT-L |  Need help? http://www.backcountry.net/faq.html  *

==============================================================================