My kids were sick this week. Yes, it was terrible. Yes, they were miserable. Yes, it was pathetic. No, I didn't sleep. But guess what I did get to do?
I bought a new humidifier!
Now wipe that "that the lamest thing I've ever heard" look off your face and let me tell you about my new ultrasonic humidifier.
First of all, it doesn't release steam, the way many other humidifiers do, because it doesn't heat the water to the boiling point.
An ultrasonic humidifer uses a piezo-electric transducer (for the nerd-jargonly-challenged, thats a speaker) to create high frequency mechanical oscillations in the water. When the transducer moves away from the water, the water tries to follow but can't move fast enough. This creates a momentary vacuum creating vapor. When the transducer moves forward into the water, it creates high pressure compression waves on the surface, realesing water vapor. The result is a fine cool mist that quickly evaporates, raising the humidity of a room.
As if the mechanics of the thing weren't cool enough, it's a fog machine! I once saw somebody use the fog from one of these to make a tornado generator (think fans positioned to swirl the mist - yeah, pretty awesome).
So there you go. Even when your kids are laying around as if the black plague has returned, you can still amuse yourself with a new humidifier.
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2 comments:
Hey, we have one of those kinds of humidifiers too. I always wondered how it worked but never remembered to look it up. That's amazing. Thanks for the explanation. We should bring both our fog machines next time we get together and try that tornado business.
I don't know. It sounds kind of heartless to be buying yourself new toys when your family is suffering from the plague. I understood the part about how it was allegedly to ease their discomfort....but really, I think you're just trying to create enough fog so you don't have to look into their anguished faces. (Just kidding...) Cool machine--but as to how it works, I'm still "mistified"! (tee hee)
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