SC - OT Octane was brewing

[Par Leijonhuvud]

On Wed, 7 Jan 1998, Gedney, Jeff wrote:

> I thought "Octane" was a reference to the "Carbon Ring" structure of the
> petrol.

> > Actually, it is a number indicating the degree of knocking of a fuel
> > mixture under standard test conditions. pure normal heptane is
> > arbitrarily assigned a rating of 0 and isooctane is assigned 100,
> > making

IIRC you are both more or less right. To an (organic) chemist octane is
C8H18, which is, BTW "narcotic in high concentrations" (The Merck Index,
11th ed, p 1069).  

The same source (p 684) states re the "Octane Number"  of gasoline "[it]
is defined as the percentage of iso-octane, having '100 Octane No.,' to
be blended with n-heptane, having '0 Octane No.' by definition, in order
to obtain the same degree of knock as is obtained with the gasoline
being rated, under standard conditions in a standardized test engine."

/UlfR
(can we get back to cooking now?)

- -- 
Par Leijonhufvud                  par.leijonhufvud at labtek.ki.se
PGP fingerprint = 76 3B 11 28 79 39 87 C0  DC 4C 1F 4C C0 1F 1E 89
/earth is 98% full. Please remove any excess inhabitants.


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