Pat Says

Ahh yeah the O2 contamination makes sense now because it has to be produced when the water is split. How do you carefully control the conditions though? Put a lot of salt in and lower the voltage or what? I don't understand why the H2 is formed at the cathode though (an Cl2 at the anode for that matter). I thought since the H2 was slightly positive due to its polar-covalence with 02 it would be attracted to the negatively charged anode. Can you explain this to me please? edit: Doesn't the Oxygen combine in the liquid wqith the salt to form hydroxl ions?

So (sounding completely ignorant), what makes quatum computing so much more capable than normal 1's and 0's computing if it is only replacing the 1's and 0's with spin. I know..er I think I read, that it can carry out multiple operations at a time and is not necessarily faster but how does it multi-task?

You can also easily show it using the trig identities like revprez pointed out. It works out fairly simple (you said you wanted to do it by hand so I assumed you meant with steps involved) Ssin[x]/(cos[x])^2 dx u=cos[x] du=-sin[x] -S (1/u^2) du =-(-1/u) + c =1/cos[x]+c= sec[x] + c Simple as that

So is this variable spin where computing would come into play? (instead of 1s and 0s?) And how would this come into play with "material interfaces." Sorry about the vagueness. I'll see if I can find out a least a little more on what he is doing... I'm interested but I don't know even know what to research.

"His thesis focuses on the spin dependent transport of electrons at material interfaces." Sorry, this is kind of vague... It's my brother's thesis and I was wondering if someone has some kind of idea what it's about. I sort of got that it has to do with the spin-up/down of electrons. I think it may be leading up to quantum computing or something. If someone could explain or give an idea as to where they think this is going I would appreciate it very much. I would ask my brother but he is very busy and lives far away. Thanks.

No need to set up an option... you can do one of two things... let google find you or submit your site to google. You can let google find you by posting a link to your site on a forum that is already indexed in google's cache system and wait for the bots to find you (more reliable than submission alone). Here is how you can get it indexed: http://www.google.com/webmasters/ By the way you can create a meta-tag so that you can put your own description of the site in hte cache (like the title and a small description). Here is how you can make a meta-tag: http://searchenginewatch.com/webmasters/article.php/2167931 be sure to make the meta-tag fit with your site otherwise you website will have a lower google ranking (place it comes up when search is entered). Although there is some code that can prevent a bot from idexing you but I doubt that you have that in there.

I've been here only a few days. I'm 16 and going to be a junior in high school. I really like physics and chemistry... I hope to one day create my own version of NASA... PASA

I don't think so because the OH- balances it out making it neither acid nor base. (H+ to OH- ratio remains equal) Oh yeah (edit) "maybe when they say dihydrogen monoxide, they mean heavy water, which can cause illness. " I'm not positive but I don't think so becuase 'dihydrogen monoxide' does not indicate deuterium in the chemical formula.

It is considered to be polar - covalent. The polar covalency (made up conjugation?) is due to the relatively large difference in electronegativity (grip on its own electrons) of the hydrogen atoms and the oxygen atom. The polar covalent property allows for weak conduction (metals and salts that are in non-distilled water enhance conductivity making it unsafe with curling iron and all that other bs in the water if your wondering). The electronegativity is determined by the number of protons in the nucleus attracting the electrons and how distant the valence (outer most shell/ "orbit") electrons are. This means that hydrogen (lower electronegativity) has a weaker attraction (because there is only one proton) to its valence electron (in first shell/ "orbit") than the oxygen and therefore the shared electrons in the covalent bond are actually leaning towards the the oxygen side making it slightly negative and the hydrogen slightly positive. The difference in electronegativity is not great enough, however, to form a complete separation and polarization of the electron (now transfered from one atom to the other.. i.e. ionic bond). In this case the number and strength of the protons in the nucleus of the oxygen atom is strong enough to overcome the much shorter distance of the hydrogen valence electron. You can find a complete table of electronegativity here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronegativity So, all in all every bond is slightly polar (except diatomic bonds H,O,N,F,Br,Cl). So does anyone know if this means everything is actually slightly conductive? Possibly even the diatomic molecules because no two things are exactly alike (different places in the orbitals cause slightly different distances from nucleus etc.) I may be totally wrong in something but if someone could explain that it would help me a lot. Oh yeah, the only other alternative for Water I have heard is hydrogen hydroxide... and that is because a portion of the water is actually separated this way (like H+ and OH- ???) I think.. at least that is what i have heard.

Its H2 at the anode but you can easily remedy this by separating the electrodes enough and placing a container directly above (or have the cathode penetrate the bottle) the cathode and collect the chlorine gas. ( the chlorine comes from the NaCl of the salt solution and the negatively charged Cl ion is attracted to the positively charged cathode where it combines with another Cl ion to form the stable Cl2). So, in effect you will get only pure Cl2 released above the cathode. Any other contaminates will be non-gaseous and therefore wont dillute your Cl collection. I think the hyrdrogen is released from the anode because of its strong electronegativity... This is my own personal understanding based on my own independent reading so please correct me if I am wrong on any of this.

Hi I'm new (and JWalker's friend). I was wondering if the surface area of the electrode would have any correlation to the rate of hydrogen being produced. I wouldn't think surface area has much to do with it, if at all, and I though it would only be dependent on the strength of the current (and obviously the conductivity of the solution) but we sort of did notice more bubbles being produced when more of the anode was immersed in the solution. I don't know if it was our eyes playing tricks on us and it was just few bubbles per square unit but more spread out or if there is actually something to it. If anyone knows please let me know... it's kind of bothering me