Hurricanes as Heat Engines: Two Undergraduate Problems

Pekka Pyykkö
Department of Chemistry, University of Helsinki, 00014 Helsinki, Finland
J. Chem. Educ., 2007, 84 (3), p 447
DOI: 10.1021/ed084p447
Publication Date (Web): March 1, 2007
History, Education, and Documentation

Abstract

Hurricanes can be regarded as Carnot heat engines. One reason that they can be so violent is that thermodynamically, they demonstrate large efficiency, ε = (Th − Tc) / Th, which is of the order of 0.3. Evaporation of water vapor from the ocean and its subsequent condensation is the main heat transfer mechanism. The arguments presented here are simple enough to use as an illustration in a second-year chemical thermodynamics course.

Keywords (Audience):

Second-Year Undergraduate

Keywords (Domain):

Physical Chemistry

Keywords (Pedagogy):

Problem Solving / Decision Making

Keywords (Subject):

Thermodynamics
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  • Received: August 03, 2009

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