jdurg

Remember that the center of your spherical object is a single point that has no dimension to it. So your body simply could not exist in the 'center' of the area as your head would not be at the center, nor would your legs. They'd be pulled towards the center of the planet that you were stuck in and compress you into nothingness. Inside the Earth, the center is solid because in a sense there is no 'physical' center. All those atoms that are one micron away from this 'center' will be pulled towards the center. The gravity of the earth just isn't strong enough to cause the atoms to fuse together. As a result, they just wind up pushing against each other towards this supposed 'center'.

Liquid helium is a clear liquid which does not experience any type of frictional resistance. Hence if you had a jar of the stuff, it would actually move up the sides of the jar and outwards. Solid helium can be achieved, but only at substantially higher pressures and insanely low temperatures.

Lead is actually not nearly as toxic to adults as it is to children. Lead affects the nervous system and is especially potent to children as their body is still developing. For an adult, their body is no longer growing so the amount of lead needed to cause a similar affect is much greater. In addition, the amount of lead in the paint is not all that great. It's a risk to children once more as they don't need nearly as much lead to start showing toxic affects, but in terms of risks to adults I wouldn't be too worried about it. The best thing to do is just go get a blood test done. It's VERY easy to determine the level of lead in your blood and a simple, cheap test can do that and put your fears to rest.

I do believe it has been synthesized. I'll have to find the link to the article that mentions it, but when I do I'll post it here. (I know it had been thought of for a good long while, but I think it was within the past year or so that it was actually made). EDIT: With a quick search on google, one can quickly find a source on chemsoc.org which mentions that the once thought to be 'unmakeable' octanitrocubane has in fact been synthesized. (I would post a direct link here, but some synthesis is mentioned there and that's a no-no). Basically, they tack on more and more nitro groups to the nitrocubanes they've made until all 8 groups are nitrated. One may also believe, therefore, that something like a tetraoctotetraazocubane may be even more powerful, but I would like to see if that's even possible to make.

I believe that octanitrocubane is considered the most powerful explosive at the moment due to the fact that the entire decomposition array is only CO2 and N2. (There aren't very many H atoms in there to form H2O). Though I could be wrong so I will have to look that up. Also, woelen brought up a very good point. Any time you hear something go 'bang' an explosion happened. The 'bang' is the result of rapidly expanding gases. If you look at unconfined gunpowder, it simply hisses and fizzes a lot, so that's a good sign that it's not an explosive.

Remember that in electricity there is a lot more than volts that you need to remember. A good analogy is that voltage is a measure of how far something will fall. A high voltage is like having an object high up on a shelf falling down to the ground, while a low voltage is like having the same object fall from a much lower shelf. The amperage defines how many 'objects' are 'falling' across that voltage. If you have very low amps, it's like you have a very tiny object falling down. If it falls from a high enough level (has a high enough voltage), even the small objects can cause some harm. A high amperage is like having a MASSIVE object falling down. With a high amperage, you don't need a lot of volts (room to fall) in order to cause harm. The power of something is the combination of the voltage and amperage of a circuit. If you have a 60 watt light bulb being used and you're running on a 110 Volt line, you're using 60/110 = 0.545 amps. When you put a light bulb into your electrolytic cell, you're putting across aproximately 1.4 volts, though the real number is far less. In order to light the lightbulb up to it's maximum capacity (assuming you're using a 60 watt bulb), your circuit would need to generate 42.9 amps! That's not going to happen. As a result, your bulb will seem quite dim. The whole volts times amps equation is also why we don't get hurt from static electricity. Static Electricity is on the order of many, many, many thousands of volts. The amperage, however, is almost nothing so when we get a shock it's just annoying and not deadly. On the other hand, an electrical socket in your wall only has about 110 or 120 volts in it, but a LOT more amperage. Therefore, putting your finger in a socket can cause serious injuries. A 1 amp 'jolt' at 100 volts is the same strength as a 0.01 amp 'jolt' at 10,000 volts.

Heh. When I first got my Red P for my element collection, I had a bunch of the stuff so I decided to experiment a little bit. I mixed it with a chlorine and oxygen containing compound and when struck with a hammer I scared the living bejesus out of my two cats.

Sulfur is used in black powder to create a more attainable energy flow for the reaction. If you just have KNO3 and C in your reaction, sure you can generate CO2 and N2 if the right ratio is achieved, but what will happen with the potassium? There needs to be something there to counter the potassium ion. By adding sulfur, you allow the formation of K2S in the reaction, and your overall reaction could then be 2KNO3 + 3C + S => K2S + 3CO2 + N2.

Hehe. I'm living proof of that. I have a B.S. in forensic chemistry but there were ZERO jobs when I graduated, and the jobs are typically only filled by people who just graduated college, so if there's nothing around when you graduate it's hard to get a position in the field. You just need good timing which I didn't have.

Nah, it's not my site, but I'm an admin over there and I've been a part of the site since the day it was created. (The person who runs the site somehow found out that I had a very good element collection and asked if I'd write some articles for the site and take some pictures of my elements. My pictures now grace the periodic table at the site, and at least one of my photographs is being published in a general chemistry textbook which comes out in March of 2006).

If you need a detailed experiment, you can go over to http://www.chemicalforums.com and search for my article on synthesizing NaI. There are many pictures there that you can feel free to use. In fact, you can even use parts of the article if you would like as long as you: 1): Link to http://www.chemicalforums.com 2): Explicitly state that the article originated over at chemicalforums. -Jdurg

Leaf may work pretty well. The whole process works because the aqua regia dissolves the gold and turns it into an aqueous species. When you add the tin metal, the tin metal will replace the gold from solution, but at the same time the gold will dissolve again in the aqua regia. What ends up happening is that the gold keeps dissolving and reforming as the tin and tin ions force it out of solution. This causes the gold to form as INCREDIBLY fine particles which reflect light MUCH differently than solid pieces of gold do.

This is a neat, but expensive, little experiment used to make collodial gold which is a deep purple color and not the standard yellow color of gold. I do not have any pictures yet as I don't really have enough to get a good photograph of, but over time I will be trying to add more and more gold to this pile until I can get a nice photograph of it. Anyway, to start out you need a few ingredients: Gold metal (Any purity will do). Tin Metal (High purity is better). Nitric Acid (Concentrated). Hydrochloric Acid (Concentrated). Start out by making a small quantity of Aqua Regia with the HCl and HNO3. After the mixture has come together and cooled down, you add your gold to the solution. This will dissolve the gold and pretty much any other metal in there. Once again, when it cools off you slowly add your tin to the acidic solution. It will dissolve in the acids giving off hydrogen gas. All the while, gold will begin to ppt in a VERY fine powdery form. This fine powder can have a beautiful purple hue to it, a magenta hue, a ruby red hue, or various other colors. It's really remarkable to see. In many instances, the gold will remain in solution and you'll have to wait for it to settle. Sometimes, it will never settle as the particles are just way too small. If the particles are large enough, you can filter it through some filter paper and wash it thoroughly with distilled water. I will warn you that a significant portion of the gold winds up going bye-bye as the very fine particles stick to EVERYTHING and many times they remain suspended in the solution. So if you can get ahold of scrap gold, gold plating, and a bunch of other 'cheap' sources of gold it may wind up being a bit easier on the wallet. (I figure I only have a faint covering on the bottom of a tiny glass vial. Perhaps a few milligrams of Au).

Typically speaking, when a powdered metal is used in a firework it tends to just give off white sparks and not a whole lot of color as there really isn't a movement of electrons, just a transfer of energy. If you want color, you have to go and use a salt of a metal.

The presence of chlorine, in the form of an ion or an organically bonded atom, greatly intensifies the color of a pyrotechnic display. Hence why PVC is sometimes added to a mixture. By using a chlorate as an oxidizer, you already have built in a good deal of chlorine into your mixture so you won't need to add nearly as much 'extra chlorine'. If you were to use a bromide/bromate, you'd lose that added intensity from the chlorine. As a result, you'd need to add chlorine in some other manner. This adds more weight to your shell which means a bigger charge is needed to lift it off the ground which means more money. In addition, it is believed that bromide and other bromine salts have a sedative effect on humans and a depressive effect on sex drive. While I'm not sure about the validity of that, if indeed that is correct then you don't want massive quantities of bromine salts out there. Though I'm pretty sure that it's the color enhancements of chlorine that cause chlorates to be preferred.

Glycerol Trinitrate is a yellowish oily liquid. To me, the stuff looks a lot like vegetable oil, only not as intensely yellow. In an unrelated note, I do know that Barium Oxide (BaO) and aluminum powder is used to create pure barium metal via a Barium Thermite.

Nitroglycerine is VERY effective in treating angina because it is so unstable and decomposes so readily. It thusly gives off a great deal of NO once absorbed into the body, and NO is an incredibly potent vasodilator. By opening up the blood vessels it allows the heart to get more blood and also lowers blood pressure. This is the reason why you get such a horribly vicious headache if you work with nitroglycerine. The stuff you see used in hospitals to treat patients is VERY dilute, so if a molecule or two goes off it can't set off a chain reaction. Still, it's very potent at what it does. It's also another reason why it's so dangerous to work with. If you're in the process of making a substantial amount of the stuff and accidentally get the concentrated explosive on your hand, it can make you pass out and knock over your reaction vessel. You're funeral would then be very cheap as there wouldn't be much left of you to bury. As for the azides, sodium azide is one of the most important chemicals out there in terms of safety. In modern automobiles with airbags, a few grams of sodium azide exist in the primer. In the case of an accident, a sensor detects that an accident has occured and sets off a small electrical charge on the pile of sodium azide. This instantly causes it to detonate which immediately fills the airbag with nitrogen gas. This controlled explosion can save your life.

Things explode because the bonds holding the molecule(s) together are very weak in comparison to the bonds that are formed in the products they make. Remember, when bonds form they release energy, and when bonds break it requires energy. If you form a lot of strong bonds in a chemical reaction, it will release a lot of energy. If little energy is required to break the initial bonds, then all the energy generated can be absorbed by the products. When a compound explodes, the initial solid or liquid tends to form many moles of gas (More moles of gas than initial moles of explosive). These gases are typically water vapor, nitrogen gas, and carbon dioxide. Nitrogen gas has a VERY strong triple bond in there, and CO2 has two fairly strong double bonds. So a great deal of energy is released when the products form. This energy gets absorbed by the gases which increases their temperature. At a higher temperature, the gas expands and exerts a greater force. In a true explosive, the gases expand faster than the speed of sound and create a shock wave which results in the 'KABOOM'. Some compounds won't explode if out in the open because they don't generate gaseous products fast enough to make a 'BOOM'. Black powder and nitrocellulouse are examples of these products. If you confine them, however, then they can explode because the expanding gases have no place to go and the resulting build up of gas pressure causes their confinement to break and the gases rush out going 'KABOOM'. But this isn't a true chemical explosion as it is more of a physical explosion. As an example of an explosive, let's take a look at nitroglycerin. Glycerol trinitrate is a great example of an explosive. (H2C(ONO2)-CH(ONO2)-CH2(ONO2)). All of the bonds in the compound aren't exactly super strong bonds. They are all single bonds of either the N-O, C-O, or C-H variety. The nitrate groups are also very bulky so there's a lot of steric strain placed on the molecule. It doesn't take a lot of energy to snap one of the bonds and start forming one of the three products; N2, CO2, or H2O. The energy released when the products form is so high that it catalyzes the breaking of another molecule of nitroglycerine and suddenly there's a loud KABOOM! So an explosive is simply a chemical with a lot of strain and weak bonds which decomposes into numerous gaseous products with a lot of strong bonds. With the earlier discussion of azides, I want to also let people know that azides are up there with cyanides in terms of toxicity. I would consider azides a bit more dangerous because not only are they as toxic as cyanides, but azides can explode while cyanides can't. When an azide is dissolved in water, it forms small quantities of HN3 (azotic acid) which is INCREDIBLY toxic. So while woelen does know what he is doing with the stuff, an inexperienced chemist could really hurt themselves by having some azide go off in their face, or by inhaling the HN3 fumes.

Yes, but you will never find a gas that is physically denser than a liquid. You can take a gas and compress the living hell out of it, but guess what, it's no longer a gas now.

Yes. The forces that hold a gas together are very weak, therefore there is a LOT of space in between the individual gas molecules. In a liquid, no matter what liquid it is, there is a large attracton between the individual molecules and very little space. The more space between the molecules, the less dense it is. There is no gas in existance whereby the space in between the molecules/atoms is smaller than in any liquid.

Unfortuneately, NMR is not an area that I'm very experienced in. I did maybe one or two analyses on an NMR so I can't really give any confident answers there.

Another little update on the selenium. It arrived in the mail the other day sent in a cold pack so it arrived nice and bright red. Similar in color to my red phosphorus, but not nearly as bright. The only problem was that the vial had a 'fog of red Se' attached to the glass. I decided to transfer the red Se from the vial to another vial I have that is more inline with how the rest of my sample containers look. (Hey, I'm anal retentive. That's how my collection got where it is. ) Anyway, I discovered quite a few things. Even after being filtered and dried, the selenium holds onto remnant vapors of nitric acid VERY well. I opened up the vial and was nearly taken aback by the strong nitric oxide fumes that rose out. I also noticed that selenium containing gases smell REALLY bad. WOW! I'm not sure if it was hydrogen selenide that I smelled, or some selenium oxide, but it smelled like rotting flesh and nitric oxide becuase of the two smells. Uggh. I now have it in a new container where the glass seems to be fogging up a bit. I wonder if I should filter the selenium even more. The problem is that I don't want to lose the red Se that I do have, and it's pricey getting some nitric acid. I may have access to some stuff that a lab is getting rid of at the end of the year, but concentrated HNO3 is definitely not something I want hanging around me.