chilled_fluorine

Your advice is then off topic for this thread, since the OP is quite obviously looking for something beyond getting laid. Why exactly should a woman have to show that she wants to be treated with respect to get some?

 

 

 

Oh, I'm straight alright, much to mooeypoo's displeasure.

 

Nice strawman, though. I don't believe I said or even implied anything close to being fantastic at picking up women.

 

"Your advice is then off topic for this thread, since the OP is quite obviously looking for something beyond getting laid." Fair enough, although you can never be sure what it means when a guy "really likes" a girl. Men are very shallow. More often than not, it means he'd like to get laid by her, at least from what I've seen. I say we ask him, to clarify.

"Why exactly should a woman have to show that she wants to be treated with respect to get some?" She shouldn't, but if she wants to be treated with respect, she definitely shouldn't show the inverse."Oh, I'm straight alright, much to mooeypoo's displeasure." LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL, is mooeypoo seriously a lesbian? That would explain why she's sooooo...... You know. And her username. And she's into you?

"Nice strawman, though. I don't believe I said or even implied anything close to being fantastic at picking up women." This will surely piss you off, but if you know you can't contribute, why are you on this thread? My "strawman" was to point this out to you. My guess was to lurk until someone said something you could knot into "offensive" and get your kicks for the day by attacking them. Atripolitan raised the same "offensive" point I did, quite a while before I did, yet you choose to go after me. Interesting.

Eeh... alpha2cen, that is a fermentation.

 

I agree that you can make methanol from wood through some pretreatment and a fermentation, this is not the conventional way. And also, it is not the topic of this thread!

 

The topic of this thread is to make methanol from wood through pyrolysis:

 

Wood --> [Pyrolysis] --> [Separations] --> Methanol

 

So you can see why I was confused with his talk of lignins, which, as far as I'm aware, have nearly nothing to do with wood pyrolysis? And why I might have became frustrated? And, btw, did you hear him essentially say that I'm too stupid to understand his silly paint flow charts?!? I for one will apologize. I am sorry for dissing your sentence structure.

 

This: http://www.ehow.com/how_7762993_make-wood-alcohol-through-distillation.html method never occurred to me, although it seems like it should work. Essentially soak the cellulose in hot water to make it decompose into methanol and "some other shit", for lack of knowledge.

No. I don't accept that, 'we are going to the movies tonight at 8,' or similar sorts of demanding statements is an appropriate way to talk to or interact your significant other. Both of those statements you made are indicative of an abusive and controlling relationship and it saddens me to know that there are women out there who think that sort of treatment is okay. I refuse to believe that a majority or even a sizable portion of women enjoy being made to submit to the will of the person they are with with respect to where they go, what they wear, etc. To my mind, a relationship is supposed to consist of two people on an equal playing field with give and take on both sides, not one person doing what the other person says all the time.

 

I also fail to see how, 'I assumed only men would be posting on this thread,' is at all an excuse for acting the misogynist.

 

Agreed, it's "misogynistic" and demeaning, but heck, it worked for me 95% of the time. But then, it wasn't a relationship I was looking for, if you know what I mean... They thought I was looking for a relationship, although I made it clear I wasn't. If women want to be treated with respect, they need to show us they want it, and that they don't want to be told what to do. They didn't, I did what worked. What's wrong with doing what works? Btw, if you are so good at picking up women (at least in theory, I'll assume you're straight), why don't you give the kid some advice? Do you have the right to challenge my solution before you've even attempted to offer a better one? ...this should be good...

chilled_fluorine, please stay on topic. Not everybody is a native English speaker here.

 

 

On topic again: the term "wood alcohol" is an old synonym for methanol. Methanol, according to wikipedia, was produced by the destructive distillation of wood. To me, that sounds a lot like pyrolysis, and as alpha2cen said, that means you get some lignin decomposition products too.

 

So, to make a long story short, you can make some methanol by heating wood in absence of air (especially oxygen).

 

To answer the question what works better: fresh cut or dry, I am guessing that it's dry. The simple reason is that fresh is more difficult to heat. The reaction of some components in the wood to methanol will not require water (I think), so its presence is not necessary. But I repeat: this is only a guess. Unless someone has tried it and reported it somewhere on the internet, this will be difficult to answer.

 

But you're better off using the term "pyrolysis" in your search for an answer. Most research done at the moment uses that keyword.

 

I started learning English at age 4, according to my mother. Up until then it was just German. Not quite as native as you would have thought, eh? The only reason I commented was because I honestly couldn't understand what he was trying to say.

Without degrading lignin, we can do cellulose hydrolysis. First lignin separation and do hydrolysis, or without lignin sparation do hydrolysis.

 

What wonderful sentence structure you have there. Lol

Oh really, now? And when will you be returning to the 1950's?

 

Not to be prejudiced, of course, I was just saying what worked for me. If tattooing a swastika on my forehead helped (no, I never tried that), then it probably would have been in my post. Anyways, I just meant on dates and stuff. EX. "We are going to the movies tonight, at 8." Bad ex. "You are a stupid woman and you will do what I say. Go wash the dishes/raise children." Sorry if I offended you. I guess I assumed only men would be posting on this thread, and up until now it has been true.

Can you help a high scholler out? Okay, here's the deal: I like this girl. She's a senior, and I'm a freshman. I don't know if she likes me back. I don't really know if she has a boyfriend or not. Her facebook says no, but I figure she does. I don't know wether to tell her how I feel or not. I'm always in perpetual fear of being rejected. I figured I'd ask fellow nerds, because most think the way I do. Please help.

 

Well, the first thing you need to do is find out if she has a boyfriend. If not, ask yourself (sorry, but you do need to) "Am I looking for a quickie in the school bathroom, or do I seriously like this girl?" If the prior, proceed as any stud would. If the latter, you're going to need to be more careful. Remember: girls like to be shown off, girls like to be complimented, girls like shows of your sincerity, girls like passion, and girls like to be told what to do. You might not believe the last one, but it's true. It takes some experience, so you might not want to try it on a girl you *really* like the first time. Anyways, just how geeky *are* you? If she's at all popular, and not just as insecure as you are, you don't have a very good chance. Work on making yourself seem less nerdy, tell yourself that you're just like any other kid, and act accordingly. Make friends with some of the "cool" kids, if you can. PRACTICE with other girls. Spend an hour a day at the gym instead of playing minecraft on the desktop. Girls will notice. Try to avoid "uncool" kids while she is within sight. Swap out some of those words the average person doesn't understand for profanities, obscenities, and slang terms. Once you think you've got the hang of it, just ASK HER OUT. The worst she can do is say no. Besides, there are probably plenty of girls in your school who are just as attractive, if you fail with this one.I was honor roll straight through high school, but the girls were all over me. Apparently, they found "captain of the tennis team" sexy. Strange, isn't it? If you don't ask her out within a month, you probably never will, so ask me questions and DO WHAT I SAID. Sorry to ramble- chilled (Who, btw, got laid in college more times than he could keep track of. Inappropriate, I know.)

Lignin degradation is always a big problem.

 

I've made it a few times, doesn't seem to be a problem for me in terms of yield.

I think Hugh is only looking to sell to UK collectors for exactly that reason.

 

A guy can hope, can't he? It's easy enough to get iridium past the border, no regulations on it. I've bought radioactive things from united nuclear, just had to fill out some forms.

Hi, First of all i want to say sorry if my language is not good enough to explain because English is not my mother language

And sorry if I post this in a wrong sub-forum

 

So I have an assignment from my college about Physics, specifically Fluids

In a team of about 7-8 people We have to make a mini air balloon based on Archimedes principle..

And the minimum requirements are :

1.) Able to fly 0,5 meter above its initial position

2.) Fly about 1 minute

3.) Max Mass of the source of heat : 20 gram

 

The questions are :

 

1.) What material that if burnt or act as a heat source could produce great energy in a minimum mass ?

So the thing that is commonly used is candle, maybe tiny ones, but I think there are things greater than that..

 

And I hope the material or the thing is easy to find or build..

 

2.) The shape of the balloon could be anything; Sphere, Cylinder, Cube, etc.

What do you guys think the best shape that could make it efficient and effective to fly ? and why ? (that rhymes !

)

 

Also what do you think the material of the balloon should be ?

Plastic, Rubber, etc ?

 

Thanks

20 grams of radium would be a perfect heat source. Other ideas are hydrogen, methanol, lithium, magnesium ribbon, or plain wax. Use a roughly dome shaped balloon. Use a really thin, grocery bag-like plastic. http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Mini-Flyable-Hot-Air-Balloon-with-Candles

Hi elementcollector1, thanks for replying. What I put was a bit brief. I would be a bit concerned about putting it on ebay or sending it by post. I wil do you a complete list if you want, but there is a bar of Uranium over an inch long, also 500g of Arsenic lump in the collection, so I was concerned about how and who to I should sell it to. Also, I just don't know what to ask for them. I have collected them over many years, but none of them have been purchased (in fact, until I found this site I didn't realise that there were places you could by them from).

 

Sorry if this sounds a bit vague, but initially it was your advice I was seeking. I didn't know whether there were science clubs or whatever that might be interested. I also didn't know on the legality of selling these hazardous things (particularly such a large amount of Arsenic).

 

Are you in England? Thanks again, Hugh23

 

How much would you sell the uranium for, and how much does it weigh? Do you have a CPM reading? Is it enriched, depleted, or natural? I might be interested. Good luck getting it past customs though. I only have granular/coarse powder of it, and I'm afraid to melt the stuff. Uranium oxide in the air definitely wouldn't be healthy for the environment. Do you have any rubidium? Iridium? Might want those as well, depending on how much you have.

Have any sodium metal? Otherwise, just do the same for (almost) anything: mix it with magnesium and light it on fire.

OK, I won't.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron(II)_fluoride

So, you plan to use something that's really very soluble in water (more than 1 in 1) as a rustproofing agent.

Enjoy.

 

So it is water soluble... I guess I suspected that, but the article made me wonder. I thought it would do something like al2o3 does for aluminium. So the stuff isn't soluble in nitric acid? That much at least would have to be true, unless the article I read (confirmed by the family ww2 geek and veteran) is bull. I guess I'll experiment more with different concentrations with nitric, see if that works. If it doesn't, I really don't want to, but I guess I'll give it a quick soak in nickel chloride. Btw, the first test in HF (screwing with hf past midnight, lol) left a gray-black coating, the first test with nitric and HF left a brown-ish layer on the outside, it rubbed off with difficulty, but did NOT dissolve in water. Maybe something other than fef2 is forming... Some no3 complex with fluorine in it? Doesn't seem very likely though.

Ha! Lithium. I gave up trying to melt lithium a while ago, there's just no way to do it short of argon flow, a steel injector, and immediate ampouling under argon.

Also: Can't find 'the brute'. Found plenty of other interesting designs, though.

 

Five seconds' worth of google searching yielded this http://backyardmetalcasting.com/oilburners09.html link. I did have that lithium melted, I swear it! It just exploded before it could solidify. Lolz

The other day I was reading about the German v2's. They added a tiny amount of hydrofluoric acid to the nitric acid to prevent the steel container from being attacked. One of my hobbies is blade forging. A big problem for me is corrosion. Stainless steel results in inferior blades, and you can hardly chrome a sword. I was wondering if I could apply this fluoride protection to my knives/swords. An iron fluoride layer sounds like it would make 'em just about invincible. Could it work? What concentration of acid should be used? Will it just passivate the iron, or will it eventually dissolve all the way through (stupid question). Will the protection be permanent? (practically speaking, last at least 30 years)

Notes: for John especiallyI got my hydrofluoric as rust removerNone of you will dissuade me from handling HF, at 5%, I can handle it.If nobody provides info, I'll experiment on my own, so you might as well tell what you know, if you are afraid for my safety.Please don't try to recommend another method, if this one works I'm using it. I'm not here for a safety lecture.

That being said, I'm sure all of you will be very helpful, and there won't be any problems. Thanks in advance.

We don't have to. It melts without ever catching with this method. (It takes a while, though.)

 

You guys think aluminium is hard to melt! I've made magnalium in my "ghetto foundry". My secret? Put a lid on the crucible. Herp derp. I have ruined a few ghetto foundries over the years, when the lid has fallen off, before I added the aluminium to the molten magnesium. That stuff BURNS. Anyways, just wanted to say that I've melted most everything. Lead, silver, gold, aluminium, iron/steel, bronze, brass, pewter, copper, tin, bismuth, manganese, zinc, and probably a few others. Once I tried lithium, but that didn't turn out so well... :cringes: If you have a question about casting, ask me, or google backyardmetalcasting. Sorry, I'm too lazy to post a link. Don't use charcoal as fuel, make yourself an injector style waste veggi/ motor oil burner. Propane is good too, although not very cheap. I couldn't quite get steel with charcoal, but my wvo burner does it easy. Try using "the brute" from backyardmetalcasting. It's what I got my first iron melt from. Now I've made a more sophisticated burner, but the brute is simple and very effective. Sorry to ramble, sorry to brag, but I am good at melting things...

Hi.

Which wood would yield better/more methanol; 'alive' freshly cut timber or 'dry' old dead wood ?

 

Hmm... How are you getting the alcohol, fermentation or distillation? For fermentation, you would probably want to use fresh cut, as the juices would help fermentation along. For distillation, fresh wood is brutally inefficient, as you have to boil all of that water off for no reason. Use seasoned/dead stuff for distillation. Hardwoods like oak work better than soft ones (willow), just FYI. Also FYI, you do know that the stuff you get won't be pure? Good luck.

Move to Phoenix. Lol. If naoh is exposed to humid air, it's gonna absorb water. End of story. As far as I'm aware, all you can do is dry the air, limit exposure to air, remove the air, or find something more hygroscopic than the naoh, which won't be too easy... That's why I keep half a pound of KO handy. It's fun stuff. You could try sulphuric, but it's not a good idea to be near when a good amount of it mixes with naoh... Try whatever works for you. Be safe.

Why don't you agree? You can't just say "disagree" without explaining your reasoning. Care to explain why it would be favourable for calcium metal to form and not be destroyed instantly?

 

By the way, another reason why no calcium metal is formed: The exothermic reaction. The reduction of Ca2+ by Al, if it even happens at all, would be NOWHERE NEAR as exothermic as the CaSO4+Al thermite. But the oxidation of aluminium from another oxidizing agent, the sulfate ion itself, which loses oxygen at thermite temperatures even without a reducing agent, is much more likely to be the cause of the exothermic reaction.

 

Yet another reason. The reason why magnesium reacts with sodium hydroxide is because of covalent bonding. Magnesium partially covalently bonds to its oxygen, along with ionic bonding. Sodium ionically bonds strongly to oxygen, but hardly covalently bonds at all. So the additional covalent bonding formed is what makes this reaction energetically favourable. But think of calcium. I would think that it would also partially covalently bond to its oxygen, along with a strong ionic bonding. So Ca2+ oxidation of aluminium would not be energetically favourable (or favourable at all, unless you distil off the molten calcium metal).

 

The formation of H2S that you observed is perfectly consistent with my hypothesis that sulfides are formed instead of calcium metal. But you have one more test, light it with a torch. If any calcium metal is formed, it would burn with an orange flame after you stop heating it with the torch. A flame test will only show the presence of calcium, not whether it is in the form of a metal or a compound, so that would not work.

The only proof I need is what I saw. And what I saw was a chunk of calcium. Try it yourself, but I have better things to do than explain myself to doubters. Until you've tried it (and even then you can't be sure), you can't say anything against it. Btw, I dissolved it all in hcl, 'member?

I don't think any Ca metal is made at all, not just because Ca is more electropositive than Al (there can be exceptions to that, like making Na from Mg), but because of different reasons.

 

Firstly, let's assume Ca metal was made. Aluminium sulfate would be a by-product. Usually, it is quite stable, but we're talking about thermite temperatures here. At that temperature, it will decompose to form Al2O3, SO2 and oxygen. Both the SO2 and oxygen can and will react with any calcium formed, especially at such a high temperature.

 

Second, remember that although sulfates are not typically regarded as oxidizers, they can act as oxidizing agents at high temps. For example, Na2SO4 is reduced to Na2S easily in a furnace when roasted with charcoal. It is far more energetically favourable for aluminium metal to reduce the sulfate to sulfide, instead of actually "stealing" off the sulfate anion. Any potential calcium metal formed will also react with the sulfate quickly to form oxides of calcium and sulfides.

 

So, at the end, instead of calcium metal, there is a mix of calcium and aluminium sulfides and oxides.

 

Disagree.

On another note, did a little research on ScienceMadness. Apparently, below a 35% H2O2 eutectic, the higher concentration of H2O2 freezes first, allowing for concentration. Above that, the mix freezes all at once, making separation by repeated freezings impossible.

^Don't know if I worded that quite right, but I hope you got the gist.

 

It's okay, I got the gist of it. I thought I saw 30 somewhere, but I'll believe you.

OK, fair enough, from my point of view animal fat is a waste product that I have to get rid of, your point of view differs.

The problem is that plants generally make unsaturated fats rather than saturated ones.

 

Palm oil and coconut oil have relatively high levels of saturated fats but they are predominantly shorter chain than stearic.

Why do you want stearic acid in particular?

 

If an animal product would be thrown away if not used for a non-food purpose, I will gladly use it. Better than it going to waste. Again, just about any yield is acceptable to me, because I have so much oil. (2 plastic 55 gallom drums full right now, plus some extra) But its all vegi. Well, I'm no organic chemist, but it seems like stearic acid would be the easiest to make, as I've heard it can be made from vegi oil. Plus I know for sure it works for my application. If you know of anything better, suggestions would be appreciated. So, you know anything about getting it from vegi oil?

Stearic acid is a commercial product. Why should you make 10 grams of it?

 

Well, I don't know where to buy it, and even if I did, I wouldn't, I'm a bit of a DIY freak... I want the stuff for ferrofluid lube.

 

"If you only get slightly more from animal fat, I would prefer to use vegi oil. "

if the difference was slight I'd not have mentioned it.

 

Okay, the way you said it just made it sound like a not-so-significant difference to me. Sorry. Anyways, I have a few reasons why I don't want to use "animal oil". To start, I honestly don't think I have enough animal oil to make the amount of stearic I need. If, in the future, I needed more, it would be nice to use vegi oil, as I have a near endless supply of it. (therefore any reasonable yield is acceptable to me) I get vegi oil for free, and cheaper is better. It's a way to recycle the oil as well, as otherwise it would be discarded, and screw the environment. Finally, using animal oil is *sort of* against my personal philosophy. I make an effort to use animals and their direct byproducts only as food, or when absolutely necessary. Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those treehugger vegans, I just try to live with the land whenever I can. With that being said, would you care to provide some more details, for either oil?(vegetable oil is still my preference, but beggars can't be choosers) Help would be appreciated.

You would do better to start from an animal fat, rather than a vegetable oil as the saturated fat content is generally higher.

 

If you add a dilute acid to an ordinary soap you will get a mixture of fatty acids. fractional crystallisation can get a reasonable yield of a product that, while not pure, will raise the viscosity of oleic acid.

 

So, dissolve a bar of soap in water, add dilute h2so4, then crystallize?If you only get slightly more from animal fat, I would prefer to use vegi oil. I get bucket loads of the stuff for free. Could you please provide some specifics about how I could make it from vegi oil? Thanks for the help.

Vacuum distillation of 15% H2O2 should give H2O2 of a high concentration, since H2O2 is much less volatile than water. If one distillation doesn't give a high quality product, then repeated distillation would eventually yield H2O2 with a high concentration. Fractional (vacuum) distillation would take less time, though, if you have the equipment.

 

As for titration, acidified KMnO4 should do, reducing the H2O2 to Mn2+. If your KMnO4 was acidified, no MnO2 should form and catalyse the decomposition of H2O2. Titration with a known hypochlorite solution also works, but finding an indicator for it would be difficult (I'd go with CuSO4 as the indicator, since Cu(ClO)2 is insoluble).

 

I've always diluted to a safe concentration, added mno2, calculated how many times more gas than original h2o2, then compared it to a chart that relates % to gas count. I find it much easier than chemical titration.