[pct-l] Esbit verses Alcohol

[hiker at godlikebuthumble.com (Hiker)]

At 09:23 PM 8/11/03, Montedodge@aol.com wrote:
>If esbit tablets were really lighter and better, the dog mush racers would
>already be using them in a larger form as they are always looking for an 
>edge.

This line of reasoning often leads to a faulty conclusions. Some concepts 
do not "scale" well.

For example, if you double the size of an esbit tablet, the volume 
increasess by the cube of two 8 while the surface area only increases two 
squared, 4, therefore if the burn rate is proportional to the surface area 
(a reasonable assumption) then the this larger tablet will take twice as 
long to deliver it's energy as its smaller cousin.

For the solid fuel to scale, then a more complicated shape that increases 
the surface area may be required, and that may or may not work well. Fluid 
dynamics will actually make this much more complicated, but you get the idea...

This is sort of the same reason that small creatures like insects can get 
along without lungs, but larger animals like humans need them. See
http://www.usatoday.com/news/science/wonderquest/2001-11-07-bug-breathe.htm 
for an explanation