Snyder,+Justin

An Invisible Fire

The information in this article was all fairly new to me. I have never heard of hydrofluoric acid, but I realize that its an acid, so it would cause damage. I did know that if a bottle says to handle with gloves only, that one should definitely use gloves and not ignore the warning. I didn't know that it would seep under the skin and burn the tissue but leave the outer skin intact. I never knew that hydrofluoric acid caused pain by absorbing all of the calcium and that the only way to treat it would be to inject extra calcium into the body so that the acid wouldn't eat away the tissue to get to the calcium. Most of information in this article was completely new to me so I didn't understand what the acid did besides cause pain.

Justin, Honest and forthright. You'll learn much about acid/base chemistry as we progress. 5 stars. MW

Influences of Ancient Greek on Chemical Terminology:

There were many points that stood out to me and were important to me. Unfortunately we had to narrow down our list, so I won't be able to express them all. The first point that I thought was important and that was intersting to me was that the word Chemistry actually came from one of two words; "Khem" which referrs to Egypt and the mysterious arts practiced there. The other originating word could have been "Cheo," which means "I cast or pour." This referrs to the metaallurgical operations of the greek. I never really thought about the word chemistry coming from a different language. It never really crossed my mind. The second point that I thought was interesting was that all the numbers used in naming chemical compounds, such as "mono," "di," "tri," and "tetra," are not all from the same language. The numbers are a mix between latin and greek. The last point that I thought was interesting was a lot of the names for chemistry terms actually mean their definition. For example, the word "atom" literally means "not divisible." Another example is the word "stoichiometry" whick derives from the word "stoichion," which means element, and the word "metron," which means to measure. All in all, the most important and interesting point was the last point that I discussed above. I never even stopped to consider that all of these chemistry terms actually came from a different ancient language.

Justin, Life becomes richer and richer as our knowledge grows. Well done! 5 stars. MW

Einstein's Miraculous Year:

While reading this article, there weren't many points that stood out to me. By the time I finished reading it, I only had one pint picked out. When I read it again, I looked at it more carefully and found somethings that I had misinterpreted. The first point I had was actually a question. In the article, it said that the higher the frequency, the more electrons bounced of of a sheet of metal when a light is shown on it. This doesn't make sense to me because I thought that high frequency radiation passes through objects more easily than lower frequeny radiation. My second point is based on shear incredulity. Einstein found the demensions of an atom just by observing pollen particles being bombarded by water molecules. My last point is about Einsteins special theory of relativity. I am reading a book right now called "The Black Hole Wars," and in this book, Einsteins special theory of relaltivity was mentioned and explained several times. I understand the concept and I follow the example they give about a clock and a space ship traveling away from the clock at the speed of light. What I don't understand is how one could possibly figure this out without actually going the speed of light. This last point is the main point of the whole article to me. It pretty much sums up how I feel about it. I am intrigued but also discouraged by the complexity of it.

Justin, Good reflection on frequency of light and energy. Higher frequency is more penetrating but also more ionizing. Well done! 5 stars. MW

Polymers in the Field:

The first turf field was created by Monsanto Industries and was nick named "Chemgrass." It was called "Chemgrass" because it was made out of nylon. When it proved impossible to grow natural grass in the Astrodome, Monsanto turf was installed and from then on it was called AstroTurf. The name stuck and that’s what I always thought its real name was. I had no idea that the name AstroTurf came from the actual Astrodome. I thought this was a very interesting fact even though it's not really chemistry related. The second point that I thought was most intriguing was the temperature aspect of the turf fields. In the article, the students went out on the turf to measure the temperature difference from directly above the field to the surrounding air. They found that the air temperature was 33.5 degrees C and that directly above the field was 55.9 degrees C. I have experienced this first hand which made it so interesting to me. While playing on turf on a hot day, your feet feel like they're burning in your shoes. I always knew that turf got hot, but I never realized that it got that hot. My last point was that is a health risk related to turf fields also because there is greater risk of bacterial infection on a turf field. Natural fields have soil microbes that decompose saliva, blood, and food spills. On a turf field, these decomposers are absent which doesn't allow for decomposing.

Justin, i was amazed by the bacterial thing myself. 5 stars. MW

Salting Roads:

I always knew that salt was utilized to prevent roads from becoming icy and to keep them from freezing over, what I didn't know was that it was due to a chemical reaction. I guess it just never really crossed my mind, but now that I think about it, it only makes sense. Salt is used to keep water from freezing at 0 degrees celsius, and what I jsut recently found out from the articel was that ice actually melts the water itself. Another thing that makes sense now but I never realized before is the fact that other salts can also be used. Calcium Chloride for instance actually makes a better deicing salt than regular table salt because when it ionizes in water, there are 3 ions instead of just 2. This increases the surface area and allows for faster melting of ice. The last point that was brought to my attention was that bridges freeze faster than normal road ways. This is because a regular road has the earth underneath it to insulate it whereas a bridge doesn't. I have noticed the signs while I was driving but i never really took notice to them...from now on though, i definitely will. The point that I thought was most important was the second one. If different salts, such as CaCl2, then less salt would have to be used and it would significantly lower the cost of keeping the roads safe. This would also benefit the environment and keep cars and other machines from corroding as quickly.

Justin, If the grocery stores are any indication calcium chloride is a lot more expensive than sodium chloride so it may not be a cost benefit. Good post! 5 stars. MW

Pool Chemistry:

Questions:
 * 1) What would have to go wrong for algae to form in the pool?
 * 2) Is hard or soft water used in the pool?
 * 3) How exact does the measurement of the pools pH level have to be?

Answers: Justin, OK. Now answer the questions. 1/2 way home! 5 stars. MW
 * 1) One thing that could go wrong and cause algae to form in the pool would be if the UV light in the filtration system would break. The light kills many bacteria, so if it would break, there would be a greater chance of fungal or algae growth.
 * 2) The water used in the pool is hard water. It uses chlorine instead of salts to keep the water clean.
 * 3) The pH has to be relatively precise because otherwise it would agitate the swimmers eyes. In olypmic pools, the pH is monitered much more closely, it is kept at an exact reading the whole time.

Justin, OK. A little short on some of the answers.9/10

Flaking Away:

Much of the information in this article I knew before hand, but i never really thought about why these things happened. One of things that I had previous knowledge of was that the formation of rust was an electro-chemical reaction. I knew this because one of my friends, Aakash, told me this when he had AP Chem and it stuck in my mind because I would never have guessed that rust-making involved electro chemistry. Another thing that I knew was what the three ingredients that the redox reaction that created rust needed were. The rust-making redox reaction needs an anode, a cathode, and an electrolyte solution. The third thing that I had precious knowledge of was that the best, fastest, and cheapest way to prevent rusting was to just give whatever the object was a good layer of paint. Some of the things I didn't know before hand were that steel is a mixture of different metals and that the mixture is not always homogenous, making some parts of the steel a good cathode and other parts of the same piece of steel a good anode. Another point that I learned was that rust wasn't created in a single step. There are 2 steps to create rust, the first being that ferrous hydroxide is formed. The second reaction is that the ferrous hydroxide is reacted with oxygen which then creates the ferric oxide (rust) and water. The last thing that I learned from this article is salt itself isn't what makes metal rust faster. The reason that salt speeds up the rust reaction is because it makes water a better conductor which speeds up the reaction because more electrons are able to flow. Also, the chloride ions form very stable complex ions with Fe 3+. This helps dissolve the iron and also to accelerate the corrosion.

Justin, Cool deal that Aakash told you about this! Well written post! 5 stars. MW