Friday, April 24, 2015

Chemistry Of: Gunpowder, Matches, and Glycerol



The Glycerol Photo will not download, you can see the graphic and download it HERE
The original posts on Compound Interest for Matches can be found here; Gunpowder here.

Here is a neat video showing the burning of a match filmed in super slow motion.

And here is a TED-Ed talk about the accidental Chinese invention of gunpowder.

Friday, April 17, 2015

Chemistry of : Cyanide Poison and Chemical Warfare of WW1


Compound Interest's original post on Chemical Warfare of WW1 is here; on Cyanide Poison here.


For more information about World War One and Life in the trenches, check out these two links. 

BBC: Life on the Frontline includes information, videos, and an interactive on Trench Life.
The Histrory Channel's Life in a Trench

From TED - 8 Great Talks on War and Peace

Here is a TedEd: Lessons from Auschwitz.

Thursday, April 16, 2015

Ideal Gas Law


Ideal gases do not actually exist, but we pretend they do and use the Ideal Gas Formula of PV=nRT.

One of these variables will not be given to you and you have to solve for it. This does not seem difficult after stoich, so students dove in and did well.

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Combined Gas Law


The combined gas law combines the work of Charles, Boyle, and Gay-Lussac.

PV = PV
nT     nT

Basically, memorize one formula and then use only the variables you need, so sometimes you need PV = PV, and sometimes V/T = V/T.

This will help you with placement and deciding whether you should multiply or divide.

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Beginning Gases

Today we started learning about the behavior of gases and the factors that affect them. Gases are lightweight fast moving particles that generally have a lot of empty space between them. Because of this, they are easily compressible (pictured left). If not contained, gases can spread (or diffuse) to fill any size and shape container.

Gases are affected by pressure, volume, number of moles, and temperature. Changing any one of these variables, changes all the others.

Today we also learned the formula for the Law of Partial Pressure. Basically partial pressures add up to form total pressure. If the total pressure is given then you subtract the partial pressures.

Friday, April 3, 2015

Chemistry Of: Atmospheres of Other Planets and Cigarette Smoke

More links to come, but for now...


Original Articles can be found here for Atmospheres and here for Cigarette Smoke.