I’m cooking chili on my coleman camp stove and my propane tank has frost on it it’s so cold. Why?
In: Chemistry
When matter changes phase from a liquid to a gas, it requires energy. That’s why we sweat – when the sweat evaporates, it pulls energy from our bodies, cooling us off. Here, the propane in your tank is stored in a liquid form. As you use the propane, it changes from liquid to gas, little by little (with the gas coming out of the heating element, allowing you to cook your chili). As it changes from liquid to gas, it takes energy from the tank vessel, which becomes cold. That then causes water vapor from the air to condense onto the cold surface, where it then freezes. —> frosty tank
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