hermanntrude

A good method for long-lasting coloured flames is to make a solution of alcohol/water with the relevant metal salt in it. Then set light to the solution. Then you get a coloured flame which lasts long enough to examine it properly. The colours come from electrons which have been excited dropping back down to their ground states (or lower excited states). Because the differences in energy levels are different for each ion, the sizes of the "drops" the electrons make is characteristic of the ions and so is the wavelength of the photons released. For more information, look up atomic emission.

i'm fairly sure "tin" cans are actually not made of tin. I'm not sure about what common objects are made of tin, but I suspect some of our members will know. Of course, you could buy some tin... rotometals sells a bunch of elements... as for the safety... check the boiling point of tin and make sure you're nowhere near it and look tin up in a few books, check the MSDS etc, that'd give you a clearer idea of whether it's likely to react at all. Consider not using your oven but using a camping stove or bunsen outdoors to minimise risks. Molten metals have an annoying habit of setting fire to other things by dripping on them.

OK so there were three posts here which belonged in the thread about electrolysis of water. I moved them. Please try to stay on topic, especially if there is a perfect thread already available. As for making magnesium, my thread on making sodium "no you CAN'T make sodium" is probably pretty similar in tone to what i'd write about magnesium. The only difference is magnesium isn't quite as dangerous as sodium, and probably slightly easier to make, but not much.

I had heard of this method too, but I didn't have one with me that day. I may try it out in future but my thermite is quite coarse-grained so whatever method I use has to be good :0)

I changed the thread title for you. is that OK?

basically, at the anode, whatever can be oxidised easiest will be oxidised. At the cathode, whatever can be reduced easiest will be reduced. If the metal you're trying to reduce is stable enough as a salt, it'll stay that way and the water will be reduced instead

be extremely careful, theo... this one's not forgiving at all... spitting liquid iron around the place and generally being extremely hot and uncontrollable.

I've done it! I just had my first thermite! I couldn't get it to ignite for ages... I tried various variations on magnesium fuses, bent and folded in different ways but none of them worked. I also tried KMnO4 and glycerol in varying quantities but it never worked. The thing that finally worked for me was a combination of the two... I placed a 3 inch strip of magnesium, folded into thrids into the thermite mixture, then poured some KMnO4 on top until the magnesium was almost covered up, then ignited the mixture by adding about 3 ml of glycerol. IT WAS AWESOME. next time I do it (and there WILL be next times) I will video it.

I've learned the lesson never to try a demo for the first time in front of an audience.

you think i'll have enough for this?

apparently if it's all kept in the same place, about one-third of the CO2 will solidify

in VB theory, the overlapped orbitals are usually only two orbitals and they closely resemble the orbitals they are made from. No mention is made of anti- or non- bonding orbitals in VB theory, and no mathematical attempt is made to actually define the resultant orbitals. In MO theory, however, the MOs are calculated precisely to give new orbitals, usually in pairs of anti-bonding and bonding orbitals. Also several orbitals can be combined to form several MOs (think of the MOs for benzene... valence bond doesn't come close to that). because of that, MO theory can predict several things that VB theory can't, such as magnetism, precise bond order and aromaticity

you got it. it's your turn

thanks for doing the calculation for me... there is slightly less than 227g, so my lab would have to be 12,600L to stay safe. My front room is approximately 24,000L and my lab is easily four times that. Should be OK... but I might do it outside anyway :0)

theo was too slow: I am named after a greek myth, and also named after a moon of the ringed planet. I am a metal known for my hardness and high melting point. Who am i?

my lab is extremely well designed for ventilation... one side is windows... so if anything goes boom, one side of the lab becomes ventilation :0)

I'm sorry, but we can't really tell you how to make explosives. I can tell you that you can buy solid-fuel rocket engines in some model stores. I used to buy them in london

Is it safe for me to turn a lecture bottle of CO2 upside down and release it into a pillow-case so as to get some dry ice out of it? I know the technique works with fire-extinguishers but I wonder if the same things apply

calcium metal, calcium ions? what reaction are you trying to do with the "calcium"? I'm assuming you don't mean calcium metal because you say you want it to stay there in water... more info required

this periodic table is very nice... lots of information provided. thanks for the info :0)

no. That's your job. Try searching the web of knowledge or scifinder or something

I don't have the power to edit your posts, and really there's nothing that you've said that's against policy... BUT you'd be doing better if you reminded people of the dangers in your experiment and the measures that should be taken to minimize the risks.

I'd like to remind users (again) about our hazmat policy please be careful what you describe and how. Particularly important is your description of the safety procedures so that if anyone decides to try to repeat your experiment they don't blow their faces off. Boiling concentrated acids is not safe, smelling unidentified solutions (particularly boiling concentrated acids) is not safe and describing such procedures without any warnings to the general public is... not safe. and you still have no proof of what you've made. Most likely it's an unholy mixture of acids and salts.

close enough, theo. sexithiophene is the name. (sexi = sexy = appealing) your turn

very close! think of a different prefix for hexa