Leaderboard

Also scrapping oversight (from the NYT). Some of which has already happened. Especially as they have repeatedly shown to just blatantly lie https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/19/politics/doge-canceled-contracts-8-billion-invs/index.html. If they had any good intentions, honesty would be just the barest minimum. And they cannot even pass that threshold. Also one important thing to understand, DOGE was set up as a pure advisory committee, which has certain requirements and limitations. A proper community with operational functions would be under more stringent oversight. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Advisory_Committee_Act As we can see that in practice DOGE, pretty much doesn't act like an advisory committee by asserting a range of powers, including firing folks.

Yeah, no wonder that he is against pronouns. He likely just doesn't understand the concept of language.

The flame test I referred to forms the beginnings of most modern spectroscopy, one of the main modern analytical tools. Chemists have much to thank Physicists for in the development of the modern spectrometer. There are various sorts, Infra red, Mass, Ultra violet, etc. These are capable of answering the "How much ?" question and are often fully computerised and automated. So there is a new term here, spectrum, which basically means a range of values. Note also in the flame tests that the presented is using ions, which we will come to. These are ions in solution (dissolved in a solvent) probably the most common way Chemists use ions.

I'm not a chemist but a physicist. I last studied Chemistry in 76-77, my last year of high school, but I've been working as a 'chemist' for 38 years. ( see ? It's not that difficult ) Keep in mind that chemical reactions involve electron jumps, sharing and transfers. They, in no way, alter the nucleus of the atoms involved; the number of protons and neutrons, and elemental atomic number stay the same. That means all the reagents must be present in the products. This gives clues for analyzing the products of a given reaction. ( and means there is no such thing as 'alchemy' )

Ok so let us look further into analytical chemistry. Say we have plenty of sample to play with. We are normally interested in the answers to one or two questions or both. The first question we ask is What is in it or what is it made of ? This is called qualitative analysis and is by far the easier of the two. The second question is How much ? This is called quantitative analysis and I will come to that later. So we can look at it and ask Is it a solid, liquid or gas (at room temperature) ? What colour is it ? - Most substances are a white powder, colours are less usual and generally distinctive. Will it dissolve in water, acid, benzene, or other common solvents ? Geologists carry little bottles of acid which test rocks for the presence of calcium (eg limestone, chalk etc). Lavousier may well have tried a flame test, although he would not have the modern advantages in this video from MIT. Note in the video after the introduction the flame colours are shown with the overall flame colour on the left and the different colours making up the overall on the right.

You should ask doctors

In 1906, an American writer and investigative journalist called Alfred Henry Lewis (1855-1914) said in an article printed in the March edition of the Cosmopolitan Magazine - “There are only nine meals between mankind and anarchy” https://barrypopik.com/blog/every_nation_is_about_nine_meals_away_from_a_revolution This mirrored a sentiment which originally appeared in an article printed in the Denver (CO) Post 17 October 1896 - “Further Facts in the Case of Mark Hanna,” pg. 6, cols. 6-7

Here is a nice demonstration of the reversibility described above:

Glad you liked it. So I would not start with atoms, molecules, electrons and protons, although you mqy have heard of some of them. This is because we start with our encounter with the surrounding material world. We create words and language to name and describe these things, rather as I have done with iron, wood, concrete. water etc. Then with our scientific hat on we abstract properities, characteristics and abstract descriptions about these same things and how they might be similar or different. We create an abstract model in our heads, computers or on paper. So then we have two worlds a direct material one and an abstract one to deal with and this abstract one is where beginners especially find difficulty. So I am going to suggest you re-read the list of sub caegories of chemistry I mentioned in my first post and we find a few examples in a preferable category to introduce the abstact science of chemistry and its specialist nomenclature. You have already done this to some extent with your question This is the way to keep the theory in touch with the tangible which makes for a more interesting subject experience. So how about you pick one area and I will offer some examples ?

Are you talking about charge? What's an "electric particle"? Atoms definitely have electrons, if that's what you're referring to. Gosh, it would be great if there were fixed definitions for these scientific explanations, so we could understand each other without making up words. Fire is an event, not a thing by itself. Similarly, electro-chemical reactions also require very precise conditions before they can happen, but once those conditions are met, they can't NOT happen. Also, if electricity is produced from a chemical, the atoms have electrons. Do you recognize electrons as being "an electrical particle"? In mainstream physics, electrons are both particles AND waves.