French,+Cory

Harry Potter Chemistry Post #1 Its amazing how much of the "magic" in Harry Potter is copyable by chemists with simple materials. I found the parts about the chloride metal solutions that burn different colors very interesting and would enjoy finding a way to create the elusive black fire but making green fire would be cool for starters. I am wondering how successful the Wizard Coin Making would work with the zinc solution and ending with a goldish coating.

(As a little side note for anyone whose read the 6th book or seen the movie, does Mr. Williams love of explosions and attitude toward the class remind anyone of Professor Slughorn and his potions class. Although who doesnt love explosions.)

Cory,

Be sure you are following the prompt and find three things to write about. 4 stars. (I'll have to check out professor Slughorn)!! :) MW

Redefining the Kilogram Post #2 The kilogram being a physical artifact in the shape of a golf is interesting because it is the last SI unit with a physical artifact. I never knew though that the kilogram could be calculated by using Planck's or Avogadro's constants to find the exact measurement. This is a very important article for our chemistry class because if the standard measurement of a kilogram changes all of the text books and teachings involving the Kg will have to be revised and re-taught. In my opinion, the MVP of this article is that no matter what happens come 2011 the BIPM Committee will forever change our understanding of the kilogram and how to measure it.

Cory, I'm sure people are watching very carefully to see how this will turn out. 5 stars! MW

Crude Oil Post #3 I wonder if distillation is used to seperated the different hydrocarbon how do the companies that industrially fractionate crude oil create enough heat for the thousands of gallons of oil? Do they use electric, solar, or coal burning heat to distill the oil? It is interesting that they have found a way to mass distill the water of thousands of gallons of oil. In these mass fractional distillation tubes, the temperature decreases as the gaseous oil travels up and when it reaches a point where it returns to liquid it exits into the separate fraction containers. I would like to learn of other substances that use fractional distillation to purify or seperate because it seems like a long and difficult process and not very common if the main use is for crude oil refinement.

Cory, I suspect they use fractions that have already been separated to fuel the furnaces that heat the oil. This process is probably the most economically important in the industrial world. 5 stars. MW

Motion Detectors Post #4 Before reading this article, I did not know that there were three different types of motion detectors. I thought they all used sonic detection but really there is also ones that use infrared sensors and light beams that can be "tripped" by passing through them and the sensor. With sonic sensors, i find it interesting that the sonic motion sensors are a lot like bat's echolocation, but i wonder how is it that they tell the difference between people and just an animal or something like a tree branch or snow. Also, do the sonic motion detectors have any affect on bats that may be flying nearby? The final type of motion detector, infrared sensors, I did not know worked by picking up wavelengths between the 8 to 12 micrometer range and that humans produce infrared rays with wavelengths about 9 to 10 micrometers. Although, wouldn't the infrared sensors then also pick up on animals with body heats close to human, like dogs or cats?

Cory, I do believe that they pick up dogs and cats(or other animals). Be sure to be clear to catalog what you already knew. MW

Where do chemical elements come from? Post #5 Elements disperse from supernovas in which the first 26 elements are. nucleosynthesized. Supernovas occur when stars create collapsable iron cores or use all their energy.

Cory, Looks good. I think you meant "from" not "form" there but OK. 5 stars. MW

Sugar Explosion Post #6 The explosion of sugar comes from the chemical reaction of combustion that occurs with the sucrose when it possess enough surface area. Since reactions like combustion can only occur on the surface of a substance, the more surface area the quicker the reaction will occur. This relates to chem class because we study how reactions occur and how to accelerate them. An interesting bit of the story is that this type of explosion can occur with any energy possessing dust like wood or coal. Another part of the article relating to chemistry is the fact that their are 12 mols of gas in the reactants of the sugar explosion, but the reaction ends up forming 23 mols of gas molecules.

Cory, Good connections and well written! 5 stars. MW

Helium Balloons Post #7 This article includes many interesting and important facts about gases, pressure, and forces that act upon the previous two. The first important point is that buoyant force, a small minute force, acts upon all objects to keep them buoyant and at a point where they can stay still without moving up, down, left, or right because the force is equal in all directions. Next, for each liter of air on object displaces, it faces .0028 lb of force exerted on it, this force is so small that it only works on light objects like a helium balloon to push them up until the buoyant force is even across the objects entire surface. The third and most important and helpful point is that the buoyant force a displaced fluid projects on an object is equal to the displaced fluids weight in pounds. This fact is called Archimedes' Principle after the famous scientist Archimedes.

Cory, I agree with your MVP. Good post! 5 stars! MW