The day to day of a red head with a handlebar mustache.
Special Mercury Bonus Fact!
The meniscus of mercury is upside down from the conventional meniscus of liquids such as water. This is because the forces acting between mercury atoms are greater than the forces acting between the mercury and the glass container.
The amazing magical throwable fire extinguisher … how does it work??
Someone sent me this video on Twitter and they were a little confused. Essentially, it’s an anti-fire grenade, that when thrown into a blaze seems to magically extinguish it.
What’s going on? Have the Japanese invented some magical black magicks that return the cursed flames to their own fiery dimension?
Nope, it’s just simple chemistry. The canisters look like this:
They are filled with a mix of chemicals, usually the following (or similar): Urea, ammonium chloride, ammonium sulfate and sodium carbonate. Under the heat of a fire, the grenade breaks and the following reaction happens:
You can see that it creates lots of carbon dioxide, which starves the fire of oxygen, and ammonia, which has a cooling effect. Some versions even add in a fine inert powder that coats surfaces in a fire-protectant film.
Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.
(by MrADDME2)
I bet none of you knew that fire extinguishing grenades have existed since the 1800’s.
Do Candles Burn In Space?
Initially - no. Candles work on the principle of combustion; a reaction which requires oxygen - and space is quite oxygen-less. However, what if you had an artificial supply of oxygen on a spaceship? Although the candle would burn, it wouldn’t be quite the same ‘candle’ that we’re familiar with. Since there is no principle in space of ‘top’ or ‘bottom,’ The answer’s “maybe” because candles don’t burn in the microgravity of space exactly as they burn back here on Earth. ”Convection doesn’t draw cooler oxygen in at the bottom and throw hot exhaust gases out at the top, as it does here on Earth, where hotter gases are less dense (weigh less per unit of volume) than cooler ones.” Since there’s no notion of “up” and “down” in empty space, there’s no “top” or “bottom” of a candle flame either. As this NASA photograph shows, with sufficient oxygen a candle burning in space would look like this.
I love science.
meat
Oh my god. Then the Meat Planet must exist.
(Source: alvins-hot-juiceboxx)
Ingredients of life
Illustrations of Chemical compounds by Rex
An ultra-cool set of posters! Dopamine is the one I am most familiar with and it’s a very interesting chemical not only because it causes our emotional responses, but because it controls the ‘reward system’ of our brain which in turn motivates us to repeat actions that we enjoy (even if they are not good for our overall health, as is the case with chemical addiction).
But rather than dwelling too much on the more serious effects of these chemical responses, focus more on the greatness of the posters!
(Source: talesof4chan)
