Chemistry

I stumbled upon this forum. This is great! Over the last year or so I have really taken an interest in chemistry... There are a couple concepts I am a bit confused about. Despite having scored good grades in my classes, I have to admit that my knowledge is pretty limited to "bookish" chemistry - in other words - completing problem sets!! I am curious about orbital hybridization. I know the orbitals based on the periodic table, and can predict the hybridization of an atom within a molecule based on the lewis dot structure. However, I'm not sure how or why hybridization occurs. In class it was described as the "promoting" of an electron to a free orbital with…

I was wondering if anyone knew if there is a formula or equation that can be used to calculate certain variables when using solubility curves? I know that graphs can be used to oberve the curve and work out approximatly what the temperature or solubility is at a certain point. In particular I wanted to know if there is a way to work out or find an equation for calculating the solubility curve for potassium nitrate dissolved in water. Any help would be great.

please tell me if i've understood this correctly; - copper atoms bond collectively, not individually - the copper atoms all lose their single outer valence electron* to the 'common pot' (the 'sea of electrons' that allow conduction) - so you basically have lots of copper cations, in a sea of electrons - the bond is caused by the attraction between each cation, and the 'common pot' of electrons *copper's electron shells are normally filled, 2,8,18,1? (the 1 valence electron being the one given up for use by all the cations collectively?

considering gold has a higher atomic number, and greater relative atomic mass (or is it "standard atomic weight"?) i would have thought gold to be the more dense?

I crystallised my bismuth! it's so rediculously easy to do. I don't know why people dont have bismuth crystallising parties every week. It's awesome fun to do. The only slight difficulty is that it's very hard to take a photo which does justice to the colours. I'm very proud of my bismuth crystals. I plan to make more. Here's the few photos which did work out:

Which blocks are these four elements in? I'm sure that some tables show La and Ac as being in the f-block and Lu and Lr in the d-block, whereas some put them all four in the f-block and some put Lu and Lr in the f-block and La and Ac in the d-block. It seems to me the whole mess of transition and inner-transition metals should be put in a d/f-block since there is so much mixing of electronic configurations.

Hi all, I read this a while ago and was wondering why the this was so; Cp>Cv for a gas while for solids its the same. I tried to do some research but got absolutely nothing. Any ideas. Help appreciated. thnx

What is mixed in lpg gas to make it smell?

From newscientist: A superhard substance that is more slippery than Teflon could protect mechanical parts from wear and tear, and boost energy efficiency by reducing friction. The "ceramic alloy" is created by combining a metal alloy of boron, aluminium and magnesium (AlMgB14) with titanium boride (TiB2). It is the hardest material after diamond and cubic boron nitride. ... BAM is much slipperier than Teflon, with a coefficient of friction of .02 compared to .05. Lubricated steel has a friction coefficient of 0.16. ... Bruce Cook, lead investigator on the Ames Lab project, estimates that merely coating rotors with the material could save US industry alone 3…

I have grown up believing that Avogadro's number is a constant like the speed of light. However, there must have been attempts to get more accurate figures. Just out of interest, I wonder what the number is now and how it is calculated?

Hi all I was wondering if we could burn carbon soot and get energy out of it. I learnt that burning hydrocarbons with insufficient oxygen produces carbon monoxide and carbon soot. Incomplete combustion. What is it in hydrocarbons that make them give out so much energy when we burn it? Is carbon the answer? Thank you

hi all, I just wanted to ask what the fragmentation pattern of oxalic acid will be. Its not a homework question so I think its appropriate for this section. I think that the m/z = 17 corresponding to OH will be lost leaving the fragment C2HO+ behind. I can't think of the other fragment for it. Any idea folks!

What do you guys know about delta, phi and gamma bonds? do any of them actually exist? Are there different types of each variety? for instance, if an f-orbital bonds with another, you could get a different type of bond depending on the values of ml. I guess the orbital with ml=0 (fz^3) is unlikely to make a bond since it's quite small around the middle, but the ml=-3 and ml=-1 varieties seem like they could make them... the ml=-2 looks like it might make something similar to a delta bond... I can simulate all of these on my new orbital viewer software but iwonder if i am simulating anything real or not... here's an example of a phi bond between two 4f orbitals…

I just started this chemistry class in college and I have never taken chemistry before. I am so extremely confused it's not funny. I keep reading the book, but it's not helping. Is there an easy way to remember this crap?

I have a bottle of this: http://www.nutricology.com/Hydrochloric-Acid-1-500-Liquid-16-fl.-oz.-500mL-p-16674.html I would like to make pure HCL from this. Then make a solution of 37% HCL and water from that.

Ok. First of all this is a homework problem so please provide your steps on how you solved this. Calculate the [math]K_{a}[/math] for the following acids using the given information. (a) 0.220 M solution of H3AsO4, pH = 1.50 so i know the concentration of H+ ions would be 10^-1.5 = 0.0316 M I think the dilution of the H3AsO4 is: H3AsO4 --> 3H + AsO4 now what?

I have researched each compound. NH3 is stable. CH is unstable The Carbon atom wants 3 more electrons in its 2nd shell. CO2 is stable. CH2 is unstable. The Carbon atom wants 2 more electrons in its 2nd shell. N is unstable. It needs 3 more electrons in its 2nd shell. NH is unstable. It needs 2 more electron in its 2nd shell. So how does it all fit together?

what is the kF reagent? how it can be prepared?

Is that an official name for CH? I know that NH3 is named Ammonia. I also know that NH3 is stable wheras CH isnt.

I understand that Covalent bonds hold each compound together, but what kind of bond holds the amino acid together?

Extension of this thread: http://www.scienceforums.net/forum/showthread.php?t=35756 I'm back with another concept. In this medieval world that I've made (you've got to read the other thread to understand), it would be somewhat difficult to find pure sodium naturally, unless I write in some sort of mine. So I'm working on a concept I like to call "Fire Lake." I wanted to validate it with all you good people to verify its viability. A warlike people with a fascination in what they call "earth magic" has invented a procedure for obtaining an extremely reactive material (pure sodium) for the purposes of explosives and incendiary battle tactics. Firstly, a small …

what's the meaning of reagent grade (17M) of ammonium hydroxide ?And how does make it? ammonium hydroxide=ammonia water？ thank you very much!

Must find the molar mass of an unknown volatile liquid. Using the equation PV=mRT M P= 102.4 KPA V=0.098L T= 373 K Mass= 0.1647 g R= constant gas for KPA= 8.312 KPA Rearrange it to M= mRT PV i got M= (0.1647)(8.312)(373) (0.098)(102.4) M= 50.8841 g/mol

Can anyone here give me a simple definition of what the drift in the Karl Fisher is?

Hello, Im trying to make some nitric acid to recover gold from mercury. It is extremely expensive so purchasing it is out of the question. I was told that I could mix potassium nitrate into hydrochloric acid until the potassium nitrate no longer dissolves. I will be left with a nitric acid solution that I will be able to use to dissolve mercury. I can then recover the mercury by dissolving aluminum foil in it. Im just checking to make sure this information is correct. Thanks