Q.What will happen if the upper outlet of the condenser is connected to the tap instead of the lower outlet?

Step 1. The condenser's jacket has two outlets through which cooling water is circulated, and standard laboratory practice is to run the water counter-current to the vapour: in through the lower (outlet nearer the receiver end) and out through the upper outlet.

Step 2. This arrangement keeps the entire jacket permanently filled with water, because water is being pumped in at the bottom faster than gravity can drain it, and it must rise and fill the jacket before it can exit at the top.

Step 3. If instead the tap (water supply) were connected to the upper outlet and water made to flow out the lower one, the water would simply flow downward and out under gravity without necessarily filling the jacket completely, leaving an air pocket at the top of the jacket where no cooling water is present. …

Apply the standard practice of counter-current condenser cooling (water in at the lower outlet, out at the upper) to reaso …

• Assuming it makes no difference which outlet water enters through — the direction affects whether the jacket stays completely filled with coolant. …