hermanntrude

There is also a small amount of gold in sea-water. I remember a story about a guy who determined the quantity and decided it would be a profitable venture to go out in a boat and concentrate the gold to collect it as a metal. unfortunately he did his math wrong and came back with minimal amounts

I used to have a space-filling model of the world's first unambiguous molecular rectifier, but it'll be somewhere in the archives now, possibly lost for ever.

it stated "i cannot go buy" it didn't state "i can't use the internet". Ordering things online is usually something you can manage to do even if you've had both arms aputated, as long as you have good teeth and a stick

you realise of course that the US spellings are now becoming (in most cases, have already become) the standard IUPAC spellings. I was forced to change every incidence of "sulphur" into "sulfur" when i submitted my PhD. I found it very upsetting.

To clarify, there are far more than five senses. Propioception, for instance, or sense of hunger or thirst, sense of hot and cold etc. Five senses is a myth. however, it's almost impossible to tell what kind of brain activity there would be without any of them.

As a new father i can defnitely tell you that sleep is a GOOD thing and should not be wasted or frittered away. If you fall asleep, be happy that you can and wake up happy and not with a headache, droppy eyes and that feeling that the world is covered in a giant blanket

buy a chemistry set. If you can't get to a store, order it online.

it's a general rule of thumb that when you combine the most reactive elements they form the most stable compounds. hence sodium (catches fire in water and sometimes explodes) and fluorine (burns the crap out of skin and reacts even with noble gases) forms sodium fluoride (boring white stuff). And cesium (explodes in air) and iodine (fairly reactive) forms cesium iodide (boring white stuff)

vibration might increase the speed at which transpiration can occur. Most of the process relies upon capillary action. Capillary action is slowed somewhat by the surface tension on the water, which often creates extra friction. If the capillary were shaken, though, it might help overcome the friction? It seems i can imagine this fairly well but can't describe it too well. Perhaps someone else has the jargon needed

the molecule NH4OH does not exist in aqueous solution. It is entirely dissociated into NH4+ and OH- It's kind of semantics really but in this case the ionic attraction is intermolecular rather than intra molecular since the two ions are both molecular but not part of the same molecule. However, it's traditional not to refer to ionic bonds as intermolecular, since they're actually a bond, even when in the temporary state we find in a solution of an ionic compound. Hydrogen bonding is also in there along with london dispersive forces. Hydrogen bonding is of course the strongest by far. You could say that there are dipole-dipole interactions but in fact that's what the hydrogen bond is. it's just a REALLY strong dipole-dipole interaction.

nifty stuff. well done. Also, the RSC have a font, which is useful when word processing with chemistry. link to RSC font

That would be the uncertainty principle

kind of depends on what OTHER ions you have in the solution. you dont have a solution of only Cl- ions do you? if it's H+ Cl-, you'll get a concentrated solution until the HCl starts evaporating. If it's NaCl you've got, you'll end up with a bunch of salt. All depends on the counter ions

a more specific question: Has anyone here ever added rubidium to water? Most chemistry instructors only go as far as potassium when demonstrating alkali metals with water. i want to try rubidium but want to stay safe. how much is safe to add at any one time? I know that it's not safe to store so i dont want to buy more than i can use at one time

much more in detail than you need, but there's a website with ALL of the regular polyhedra (not just the platonic ones): http://www.mathconsult.ch/showroom/unipoly/index.html which contains a clickable map: http://www.mathconsult.ch/showroom/unipoly/list-graph.html

it sounds a bit like a musk rat, but i dont think we have them in the UK.

weasels are MUCH smaller than stoats and otters and cats

if you want some sodium, just buy it. But be careful. azides are pesky buggers and have a tendency to explode. At least with sodium you generally know when it will explode and why

thanks. I'll see about getting it

true, good point. Unfortunately, that'd take about a year :0) I'm grateful for your ideas so far. keep them coming and i'll eventually have a list of good'uns. I remember the sulphuric and sugar demo from high school. I'll have to do that some time. bump (is that forbidden here?)

hahaha good point TD

you should also include the oort cloud and the nearest galaxy. that way everything else just becomes a dot :0)

I think the universe can do what the hell it likes. It's bigger than me

When people get all stupid and loud-mouthed about Genetic modification, sometimes i like to let them get up a real good head of steam about it, and then point out that for about 15 years i was entirely dependant upon the secretions of genetically modified bacteria and i havent grown any weird protrusions or died of cancer or anything. genetic modification isnt a frankenstein science. give it a chance

IMO it's probably worth hanging onto DVD for a while and waiting for the NEXT next level. They're going to develop something bigger, and they're bound to want to make some extra cash meanwhile. If it's feasible, i'll wait till we have ulra-DVDs or whatever dumb name they come up with for them. By the way my flash drive holds 2 Gb and doesnt get scratched to buggery every time i move it. It works nicely for me, since my computer is my only entertainment source (i dont own a TV and dont want to, since i download all my entertainment, commercial-free) and my computer is fairly old anyway.