I don't know about you, but I hate swimming in cold lakes. What about quickly heating the water before you jump in?

A strong, but sustained exothermic reaction could do this. You would throw in your "ball-o-chemical" wait a second (or a few) and jump in--pain free.

Sulfuric acid and water supposedly act like that, but who really wants to carry around sulfuric acid? Another is zinc and sodium peroxide, however that reacts very quickly (not to mention the chance that the sodium peroxide blows you up). Maybe there is a better reaction :)

What do you think about that?
-- Selevercin, Mar 13 2003

Hot water. http://www.alaskaph...anks_dale_odell.jpg
...cold feet. [Amos Kito, Oct 04 2004]

Heat cubes heat_20cubes
I was googling around to determine how much thermite you would need to warm things up, and I wound up back at the HB. [bungston, Nov 30 2006]

Wrong category for a start. Maybe [Other:chemistry] or even [Other:terraforming:water] would be more appropriate. [halfbakery:idea] is for ideas relating to this site.
-- sambwiches, Mar 13 2003


I think, Poor fish.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Mar 13 2003


And if you're gonna throw sulphur peroxide into a lake and then swim in it, I think I'll let you test the water before stripping down to my speedo. If you have skin left after a few minutes maybe I'll consider a dip.
-- sambwiches, Mar 13 2003


You could have a computer-controlled turret mounted on the bank that tracks your movement and uses high-powered microwave guns to heat the water immediately in front of you.
-- pottedstu, Mar 14 2003


Get in water, turn on blow-drier.
-- thumbwax, Mar 14 2003


Reminds me of the billy connolly bit with the hairdryer label 'do not use in the shower'. You really had to be there.
-- sambwiches, Mar 14 2003


or live with it... swimming in cold water supposedly increases your constitution....
-- LoneRifle, Mar 14 2003


Oh! Sorry about the wrong catagory! I fixed that I think. I don't really think that the chemicals would cause any bodily harm, due to the fact that they would be dispersed rapidly.
-- Selevercin, Mar 28 2003


"WELCOME TO THE _OND. NOTICE THERE IS NO P IN IT. PLEASE HELP KEEP IT THAT WAY"
-- theThinker, Mar 29 2003


I think you'd have a hard time chemically without dropping in a whole lot of material. I'd jump streight to nuclear.
-- Worldgineer, Mar 29 2003


I prefer to build a sauna with sticks, tarps, and really hot rocks next to the cool water. Try it sometime. Tres fun.
-- rapid transit, May 16 2003


Some places have geothermal energy to heat the water [link]. So it's baked, or maybe I should say "boiled", there.
-- Amos Kito, May 16 2003


You might check out the "heat pill" idea elsewhere on this site. Anhydrous calcium chloride (CaCl2) takes on water very exothermically, but you are still going to need a lot of it to heat up any large body of water. In fact, you're going to need a lot of ANYTHING to heat up a large body of water, no matter how you do it, because water has such great thermal mass.
-- iamanangelchaser, Nov 29 2006


Thermite.
-- bungston, Nov 30 2006


True, thermite be a way.
-- imaginality, Nov 30 2006



random, halfbakery