rthmjohn

Is it even possible to prepare powdered aluminum in a ball mill? What grinding media would you have to use?

Hey guys, I don't have a bunsen burner or a gas stove or an alcohol lamp or any kind of labware to heat my useless brown iron hydroxide. I want to heat it to make my iron oxide but I don't want to use my mom's cookware and my stove is electric making it hard to heat things evenly. What would you guys recommend?

How fine of a powder would a ball mill yield?

Hey, it's been a while, but I tried that aluminum and bicarb thing and it didn't work... It just left a black residue (aluminum oxide i'm guessing) that I had to wash off. Any other suggestions?

thanks, skye

Thanks, swansont. I still don't completely understand what momentum or COM impact are, but I now know why the ball doesnt generate heat or sound. To YT: Turns out this post actually belonged here!!! :)

Could an aluminum/perchlorate mixture be ignited with visco fuse? And does perchlorate release it's oxygens to produce KCl?

How does one know if he/she is a phenylketonuric? Are they missing specific enzymes?

Swansont, I think you might know the answer. I know very little about physics, but I think this problem has something to do with conservation of certain energies and what not. Do you think you could explain your reasoning to me so that I might understand. FYI, this problem REALLY bugged me, but maybe if I had taken physics as a sophomore, I wouldn't be so bad off.

Just for the record, this question was PHYSICS related as it was under the physics portion of the test, and the bowling ball was an actual bomb... and the pilot was flying over an ocean, which is why he set it off in mid-air. Otherwise he would have had to scuba dive in the ocean to recover it

Sorry if this thread doesn't belong here, but I didn't know exactly which branch of physics it belonged to. So anyway, I was taking a placement test for a science club at school and one of the questions went something like this: "A pilot of an aircraft is flying over the ocean, when all of a sudden, he accidentally releases his explosive bowling ball. To avoid wasting a good bomb, he detonates the accelerating ball in mid-air and it bursts into exactly 1000 identical pieces of 10g each. Surprisingly, the blast generates neither sound or heat. Explain what happened." Anybody have any Ideas?

So what's the deal with using chlorates at all? If perchlorates are so much safer, then why do people still use chlorates. Is it because perchlorates/aluminum don't have as high a reaction enthalpy? I looked online and noticed that both chlorate and perchlorate cost about the same, so I wouldn't imagine that cost creates preference of one over the other.

Why does my chewing gum wrapper say "PHENYLKETONURICS: CONTAINS PHENYALANINE"? Is this some harmful substance?

Lots of uses, especially in this mixture called thermite, which is used in underwater welding and such. I can't really discuss all the details here, but you definitely should look into it yourself...

I find it VERY hard to believe that youre hardware store doesn't carry any drain opener. Go anywhere where drain opener is sold... doesn't have to be a hardware store. Get an older friend to buy some for you...

Seriously, welderman... just buy a damn bottle of sulfuric acid from the HARDWARE store. You don't have to go to a CHEMICAL store. And if you wanted it that badly, I'm sure, being as smart as you claim to be, that you could easily find a way to work around legalities... (hint hint) But I'm not suggesting that you do anything illegal... nope...

check out this site, welderman... http://chemistry.about.com/cs/howtos/ht/gunpowder.htm

Does one's cultural beliefs make one immune to harmful effects of porn? Europeans tend to have less of a negative attitude toward porn, so are they less likely to become sexually aggressive porn addicts?

True... what i think he meant was aluminum + water. The aluminum oxide passivation layer on the aluminum metal is what reacts with the NaOH. The pure aluminum then reduces the water and is oxidized to (Al(OH)4)-

You need H2SO4 that bad? Just go to the local hardware store and buy some drain opener. They sell this nice product called ROOTO. It's very pure and VERY high concentration sulfuric acid. It would save you all the trouble of actually making H2SO4... unless of course you wanted to do so...

Seriously, consider ordering the visco fuse from unitednuclear.com. Have a friend who's 21 or older order it for you. It's dirt cheap for the quantity that you receive. btw... do your parents know about your business? Consider having them order the fuse for you. Also consider using a sparkler as fuse. You may also consider obtaining some Mg ribbon from your school. Oh, and I would be kinda hesitant about hosting a pyrotechnics show and all if i could barely keep a small fire under control...

In fact, it is impossible to form a hydrocarbon from electrolysis of H2O. The black soot is most definitely from your lighter or an impurity in the water that you are unaware of.

Just wondering, aren't sulfates a Brohnsted base? They are proton acceptors...

When I say reduce I mean that the O2 GAINS electrons, which breaks the covalent bond and forms oxide (O2-) ions. Remember that oxidation simply entails the loss of electrons; and reduction entails the gaining of electrons. Metals are good reducing agents because they give away their electrons. Nonmetals are good oxidizing agents because they tend to gain electrons from a reducing agent. Whenever there is reduction, there is always oxidation and vice versa. These are called redox reactions.

Why not discuss thermite? Perfect example of a redox reaction for a pyromaniac...