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Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from how stuff works dot com

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Speaker 1: where smart Happens. Hi Am Marshall Brain with today's question,

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Speaker 1: what is silica gel? And why do I find little

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Speaker 1: packets of it? And everything I buy? Little packets of

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Speaker 1: silica gel are found in all sorts of products. Because

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Speaker 1: silica gel is a desiccated it adds orbs and holds

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Speaker 1: water vapor in leather products and foods like pepperoni. The

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Speaker 1: lack of moisture can limit the growth of mold and

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Speaker 1: reduce spoilage in electronics. It prevents condensation, which might damage

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Speaker 1: the electronics. If a bottle of vitamins contain any moisture

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Speaker 1: vapor and cooled rapidly, the condensing moisture would ruin the pills.

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Speaker 1: You'll find little silica gel packets in anything that would

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Speaker 1: be affected by excess moisture condensation. Silica gel is nearly harmless,

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Speaker 1: which is why you find it in food products. Silica

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Speaker 1: or silicon dioxide is the same material found in quartz

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Speaker 1: that all form contains millions of tiny pores that can

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Speaker 1: add zorb and hold moisture. Silica gel is essentially porous sand.

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Speaker 1: Silica gel can add zorb about its weight and moisture

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Speaker 1: and can take the relative humidity in a closed container

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Speaker 1: down to about Once saturated, you can drive the moisture

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Speaker 1: off and reuse silica gel by heating it in an

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Speaker 1: oven above three hundred degrees fahrenheit or about a hundred

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Speaker 1: and fifty degrees c. Do you have any ideas or

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Speaker 1: suggestions for this podcast? If so, please send me an

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Speaker 1: email at podcast at how stuff works dot com. For

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Speaker 1: more on this and thousands of other topics, go to

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Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com.