On Sun, Jan 26, 2003 at 06:22:12PM -0800, Pierce Nichols wrote: > I think that perhaps you are using the wrong number for heat of > formation. The number you are using is probably the one that applies when > you are reacting H2 with something else, right? The energy of the > recombination reaction is equal to the amount of energy required to > disassociate H2 into monatomic H (simple conservation of energy). I'm sure > that energy is available somewhere.
Hmmm, you would appear to be right, since Clark says that it's around 100 kcal/mol, which is around 418680 J, and I was using 8123 J from the following table: <http://members.axion.net/~enrique/propellantheatofformation.html>. I think I misread what they were saying and assumed that "elemental molecules" meant the atoms... oh well. So we're actually looking at an Isp of 1000-1100 seconds and so a chamber temperature of around 3000K, which is similar to a nuclear rocket :) -- Sean Lynch http://sean.lynch.tv/
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