With the energy of a pipe, Rita Pavone in space

The Pipe Club, October 1969.

In the various treatises on the pipe, recently published, we have noticed a particular tendency to examine the intrinsic values ​​of the pipe and its relationships with the person who derives enjoyment from its use. This attraction system (undoubtedly very romantic and pleasant) is, however, inadequate with the recent technological and scientific development of modern civilization. Ultimately, current knowledge offers us new directions to study the pipe in depth, the cradle of exquisite chemical-physical phenomena. Our argument does not seem idle, as the processes that take place in the dear instrument significantly alter the energy balance of the universe. At a more limited level, we will now examine the heat developed by the combustion of three grams of tobacco, with STD humidity.

Since the thermal efficiency of the aforementioned shredded meat QS = 4.1 Kcal/gr. we will have that one smoke ('gr.) develops 12.3 Kcal (calories). Let's illustrate the scope of the phenomenon with an example. Let's consider an average smoker (five smokes a day); he will produce 22,446.5 Kcal in one year; a quantity of heat such as to raise 255.5 liters of H20 (water) from room temperature (20 °C) to boiling temperature (100 °C). Heat that can therefore be used to produce over 2555 cups of tea. By converting thermal energy into mechanical energy, 9515 tons of work is achieved. mt. That is, we could raise the Eiffel Tower 37.8 centimeters above the ground, or Rita Pavone 190,293 meters above the ground. These scant data already reveal to us the importance and vastness of the case.

We would now like to give some hints on the resonance of the aforementioned phenomena on a cosmological level. Although in these cases there is an encroachment into the nebulosities of metaphysics, we must remember that combustion alters a thermodynamic variable of the system, namely its entropy.

As is known, this expresses the irreversible evolution of isolated systems from order to chaos; the result is ultimately a shortening of the life of the universe. This is not a cause for alarm for the pipe smoker, since the Joule-Clausius integral, extended to all space, reveals an almost negligible increase in entropy. It goes without saying that the reduction in the duration of the universe will be equally infinitesimal.

It was not our intention to bore the reader with so many and perhaps excessive physical data, however the argument, and particularly the precision, were necessary to dispel the last (no less valid) doubts that kept many people away from the pleasures of the pipe.

Carlo Fabbri and Sergio Sermasi