Chen,+Yanqi-Tyson

__**An Invisible Fire**__

As an avid fan of ancient civilizations, the term "Greek Fire" instantly materialized in my mind the moment I first saw the title of the passage. Interestingly enough this "invisible fire" did indeed possess quite a few similarities with the historically renown Byzantine war weapon that supposedly could not be put out. While reading the text I was able to solidify some areas of my prior knowledge as well as gain insights into some new scientific concepts. It made sense to me that hydrofluoric acid was a very weak acid possessing a strong bond with the hydrogen ions because you taught us last year that fluorine is the most **electronegative** element on the periodic table, and would thus be able to have an extremely strong grip on that one hydrogen electron. What I learned through the article though was that even though the bond between hydrogen and fluoride is strong, it can still be broken in the presence of more suitable partners for the electron-hungry fluoride ion such as calcium and magnesium. Another detail that I related to in the article was that due to the uncharged nature of its molecule, the hydrofluoric acid was able to easily slip through the fatty membranes of the stratum corneum. This seemed reasonable to me since "like dissolves in like", meaning the **nonpolar** acid molecule should have no trouble getting through the **nonpolar** fatty membrane. Albeit the fact that I was able to connect with many concepts of the passage as well as learn new things, I was still bothered by one particular detail once I finished reading. Although the doctor pumped a lot of calcium into his patient to help regain equilibrium why wasn't the micro nutrient, magnesium, inserted as well since the passage mentioned that both calcium **and** magnesium ions were being depleted by fluorine?

Tyson, Excellent insight and questions. I think the body needs more calcium than magnesium. We will further your understanding of acid chemistry as the year continues. 5 big stars! MW


 * __Influences of Ancient Greek on Chemical Terminology__**

As you have probably deduced from my previous post, I am a huge fan of the ancient Greeks and have often marveled over the quantity and depth of their achievements given the time period they existed. A great example of this is portrayed in the article in that to this day our "modern" scientific terminology is still almost entirely based on a vocabulary system that was developed thousands of years ago.Through my reading of this text, I identified three very important points, with one of them doubling as the most valuable point. The first V.I.P I chose was the description of the etymological meaning for tantalum located in table 3. I chose this description to be a V.I.P because I believe it epitomizes the idea that roots can give you more information about a word than mere studying. (The rationale for naming tantalum was that it was named after the Greek god, who every time he bent to drink, the water would sink, a property that is manifested in Ta2O5 as the compound is not able to take water. My second V.I.P for this article was the fact that chemical compounds are named using the IUPAC system which is derived from Greek numbers. This is very important as it provides the basis for nomenclature of compounds and provides an effective method of naming as opposed to a completely arbitrary system where a random word is assigned to each individual compound. (Imagine a world in which we called C5H12 blaspheka, and C6H14 Halaliligua) My final V.I.P which is also my M.V.P is pretty much the thesis statement presented in the beginning. "In chemistry there are hundreds of terms used commonly that are derived from the ancient Greek language......." I feel that this is the M.V.P because it pretty much sums up the gist of the entire article and gives the big picture in one simple sentence.

Tyson, OK. As always a thoughtful and intelligent post! Way to go! 5 stars. MW

__**Einstein's Miraculous Year**__

While people always revere Einstein as being extraordinarily intelligent, I doubt that many actually know the work that catapulted him into scientific stardom. This article outlines the 3 contributions that Einstein is most known for by the academic community. My first "very important point" of the article comes in the form of Einstein's work in better understanding the photoelectric effect. Although the phenomenon was noted by other scientists well before the time Einstein, it was Einstein who first explained the **reasoning** behind the effect. While most scientists at the time conceived of light behaving in the manner of a wave, Einstein proposed that light be viewed as a stream of energy particles, with the amount of energy contained within each particle depending on the frequency of the light not the intensity as previously predicted by Newtonian Physics. My second "V.I.P" was Einstein's contribution to proving the existence of atoms through Brownian motion. Brownian motion is the intriguing motion of pollen particles suspended in liquid. Einstein believed that Brownian motion was the result of billions of atom-pollen collisions. In fact, he even went to the length of calculating the size of an atom through observing Brownian motion, which finally convinced all scientists of the atomic theory. The final "V.I.P" I chose in this article was about **Einstein's special theory of relativity**. While mainly theoretical, the implications proposed by this new theory, such as black holes and the big bang, would forever rock the scientific community. In it, Einstein reasons that "time and distance and matter and energy are all relative to your frame of reference", and that the speed of light in a vacuum is the universe's ultimate speed limit. Combining all three topics together, my most valuable point for this article is, "The Popsicle was invented by 11-year-old Frank Epperson, and a young physicist named Albert Einstein wrote and published three articles that would rock the world of science for decades to come." I've read somewhere before that some of Einstein's work implicates the possibility of time travel. If that were the case, people would probably want to go back and relive the happiest moments of their lives. If Einstein had that option he would no doubt want to relive the year, 1905.

Tyson, Yes little doubt that he would look at 1905 as a good year. Interestingly enough Einstein didn't believe in the existence of black holes - although his theory predicted them! Great Job! 5 stars. MW

__**Polymers in the Field**__

As a former track runner and current tennis player, I found this article to be both interesting and thought provoking. The first thing that I found especially intriguing was that these artificial polymer things were actually used on tennis courts. I was familiar with courts being made of clay, grass, and asphalt/concrete, but never had I thought that they could be made from stuff related to astro-turf. It turns out that there are actually courts nowadays that are made out of 100% acrylic emulsion with added pigments and polymeric fibers. (I wonder when the grand slams are going to start using this stuff?) Apart from providing interesting things, the article taught me a lot of new concepts as well. An important concept that I believe the article gave insight into was process of **vulcanization** used in creating the double layered track. Vulcanization, I learned, is a process that cross-links long elastomer chains resulting in a polymer mass that is a solid rather than a highly viscous liquid. An example to demonstrate this, is the difference between gum, and rubber bands. Gum is an elastic polymer that has no particular shape and can be easily deformed. Rubber bands on the other hand, while they can be deformed, do posses a stable shape due to vulcanization. Finally, I was also able to make connections from previous knowledge acquired in class to this article. One of the connections I made was on the section which talked about how some people advise spraying water on the astro turf before a game to cool the surface down. I was able to connect to this because I recall learning in the Thermodynamics unit that water has a relatively h**igh specific heat/ heat capacity** and would thus be able to very efficiently remove heat form the turf.

Tyson, Awesome! I like your comments on vulcanization! 5 stars. MW


 * __Salting Roads:__**__The Solution for Winter Driving__

Growing up as a child I always knew that salt helped to melt the snow and ice off roads, however I never realized the science behind the explanation until today. While reading this article I have identified 3 V.I.Ps and 1 M.V.P. The first statement I believe to be a very important point is the one that explains the reason of why a salty solution has a lower freezing point than the pure solvent. "Getting the water molecules organized into a crystal from a solution requires that you remove more energy..." What I obtained from that passage was that salt and other solute particles actually interfere with the process of water turning into its crystalline lattice (solid form) and thus more energy is required to escape from those solute particles and turn into the crystalline lattice. My second V.I.P for this article was the passage that talked about the actual application of this principle to make highways safer. I learned that the salt is administered in two ways: before and after a snowfall. What happens is that before a snowfall salt is already placed on highways such that when the first snowflakes touch the ground and melt the **salt solution is formed,** which then helps prevent the future snowfall from becoming treacherous ice. Although this solution (haha pun) works pretty well, when the temperature drops too low and when there is too much snow, another process needs to be administered to combat the snow. What happens now, is that **additional salt** is placed on top of the already formed ice. While at first thought this seems somewhat implausible as a solid cannot dissolve another solid, the reality of the situation is that on the surface of ice there is actually a thin layer of liquid water to dissolve the snow. Once this happens, it then proceeds as a chain reaction to melt the rest of the ice. My third V.I.P for this article is the fact that the number of dissolved particles determines the extent of the lowering of the freezing point of a solution. This information means salts such as MgCl2 and CaCl2 are more efficient than simple table salt (NaCl). Finally, the M.V.P for this article in my opinion is the concluding sentence, "Scientists and engineers continue to develop new ways to keep winter highways safe while minimizing expense and environmental harm." It gives one a "warm fuzzy" to know that in a world of wild, corruptive politicians there are still good people out there trying to help society out.

Tyson, Always good to get a warm fuzzie! Well done. 5 huge stars. MW


 * __Pool Chemistry__**

1.) Why exactly does an increase in chlorine in the pool (super-chlorination) actually decrease eye irritation as opposed to a lower concentration of chlorine in the pool? An increase in chlorine decreases eye irritation due to the fact that once enough chlorine is added to the pool, breakpoint chlorination occurs. This process occurs when the chlorine residual in the water rises to a point that forces the reaction of chlorine with ammonia to rapidly go to completion which ultimately removes the chloramines from the solution thereby getting rid of the eye irritation agents. In addition to getting rid of eye irritation, super-chlorination is also used to prevent bacteria and germs from growing in the pool.

2.) What is the concentration of hydrochloric acid that is usually added to pools to decrease pH? The concentration of hydrochloric acid that is generally added to the CYHS natatorium is 27% HCl which is pretty much standard grade. If only minor pH changes are necessary, however, simply running some carbon dioxide through the pool might be enough to do the job since nonmetal oxides can be nicknamed acid oxides. Additionally, it was found that in addition to hydrochloric acid, sodium bisulfate is also used to lower the pH of the pool.

3.) Do indoor pools need to worry about algal contaminations? As told by Mr. Miller (Jason), the CYHS pool really has not needed to worry at all about algal contaminations. He did say however, that algae can be a huge problem for outdoor pools. In addition to being indoor, another factor that keeps algae from contaminating the CYHS pool is the fact that there is always so much activity in it. Furthermore, another factor that may prevent algal contaminations in the CYHS pool is the fact that we have a UV water cleanser/ purifier that pretty much prevents/ destroys enzymes which may allow for both bacterial and algal growth.

Tyson, Great job as usual! I did look up muriatic acid and found that its concentration was reported as around 10% so I might have misinformed you there. Next time I'm in Lowe's I think I'll take a look. 10. MW


 * __Flaking Away__**

As a young lad I had always wondered why things such as scooters and bicycles rusted. Through both the lecture I received in class today as well as this article I've just read I have been able to gain a much clearer understanding of the concepts behind this chemical process. During the article I discovered that there were quite a few things that I had already known from the electrochem unit, however, I discovered a few new things as well. The first concept I already knew before reading this article was that the formation of rust is actually a 2-part chemical process consisting of oxidation and reduction. Essentially, the iron serves as the anode and gets oxidized while oxygen gas in the air serves as the cathode and gets reduced. One of the things I didn't know though was that the common red rust everyone recognizes is actually formed in a two-part process consisting first of iron becoming iron(II) hydroxide and then iron(II) hydroxide becoming iron(III) hydroxide. Another item that I already knew coming into this article was that besides the anode and cathode, the existence of a conductive medium/ electrolyte is absolutely critical for a successful redox reaction to occur. In the fruit battery experiment we did in class the conductive medium/ salt bridge was the fruit. One of the things I didn't know, however, is that steel is actually a non-homogenous mixture of iron, carbon, and traces of other ingredients such as manganese, silicon, phosphorus, and sulfur. The final concept I already knew at the start of this article was that rusting can be prevented through galvanization, or the plating of zinc on iron objects in order to allow iron to become the cathode which would make it impossible for corrosion to occur. The final thing I learned from the article was that researchers are currently trying to create "smart" paints that release rust inhibitors when the paint is penetrated so the paint somehow oozes back together. In an age where rust is such a big financial concern to society it is certainly encouraging that scientists are finding innovative solutions to these problems.

Tyson, Your natural curiosity and abilities will take you far! Excellent post! 5 shiny stars! MW