Water or just "Gas"?

I have a limited amount of chemistry knowledge.

Water is ~ ~ H2O...a liquid at room temperature.

Hydrogen Sulphide is ~ ~ H2S ... a gas at room temperature.

Both Oxygen and Sulphur are in the same group (VI) in the periodic table, yet these substances are so different. Yet they have the same number of outer electrons.

Why is water (H2O), a colorless liquid, essential for life, and yet hydrogen sulphide (H2S) a foul smelling yellow gas?

The latter is lethal, if you cannot smell it.

The former is lethal, if you cannot drink it.

Such a disparity.

Yet so close are these elements in the periodic table.

How can this be so?

Don't be negative on this post!

Feel free to bond any answer you have to the questions posed ( or posted)!

Henmania is back!

Congratulations to Brit Tim Henman who struggled rather manfully yesterday to overcome his first-round match opponent, Jarkko Nieminen, 3-6, 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 7-5, 6-2, in the
Perennial Tennis Tournament of the World, Wimbledon.

Henman, reknown for giving the British public a veritable rollercoaster ride of excitement on even his less important matches, came out in style in the fifth set to win seemingly comfortably, after losing the first two sets rather ignominiously.

But all was Fine and Dandy on Henman Hill that day, as he showed true Brit Spirit by finishing with an unshakeable Stiff Upper Lip. (For Those Not In The Know, "Henman Hill" is that portion of the inside of the All England Club that overlooks the huge screen attached to Center Court).

Tally Ho! Jolly Hockey Sticks, etc.

When all said and done, I actually do miss the nonstop coverage of Wimbledon by the BBC (12 noon till 8 pm continuous live TV with no commercials).

Perhaps I can wangle a trip there to SW19 in the guise of having a look at King's College's lab......they are based in London....Hmmmm.....or maybe the other way around......

Look out for me in the standing room only on Center Court on July 3rd!

Church Road here I come!

What is Electricity? - Part Two

So I intimated I was going to reveal why the bulb is illuminated almost instantaneously when you flip the switch, despite the fact that electrons move very slowly in the wire.....

In fact, the speed of the signal along the wire is the same as the speed of light.

"How can this happen?" I hear you ask.

Well, liken the wire to a small tube, packed with wet sand. Yes, wet sand. The sand cannot be compressed any more.

Shove your hand in one end. If you are strong enough, the sand at the other end will move, almost immediately after.

But the sand grains within the tube will not have moved even a centimeter.

This is the principle of Electricity. The electrons are so numerous and are all along the wire, so that if one electron is "pushed" at one end, the others respond by pushing "along the line" so to speak.

Like a slinky.

A "wave" of "pushness" goes along the wire, and, because this is electrostatics, it moves at the speed of light.

Hence the "almost" immediate response at the bulb.

Something like a "Mexican Wave" in the crowd at a soccer match. No two people ever move very far, but the wave goes through the crowd very fast compared to the movement of the people.

Which brings me to the point about phase velocity versus group velocity, a recent argument I had with a Doctor of Physics in the physics room, but THAT is another topic!

Michael "Jacks" On

What is Justice anyway?

Brutus, OJ Simpson, Ted Bundy, Charles Manson (Marilyn, watch your back!), Mickey Jackson?

All are now notorious (Hitch, watch out!)

So Mr Michael Jackson was acquitted on "criminal" grounds.

This post is entirely an opinion, but what the hell , who cares about opinion anyway?

My point being, who in their right mind would have said that Mr Jackson would have been found guilty? Who in their right mind would allow their child to sleep with an unknown adult?

Not one.

He has money.

He has powerful lawyers

Since the "courtroom" verdict, he has already said that he will be "careful about who he invites to bed in future, to avoid this sort of thing again" (paraphrase).

If this is not an admission of guilt, then what is?

Parents, beware! Do not let your kids sleep over in a powerful man's house! He may pay you an enormous amount of money to deny it!

You may dance fine, but only on stage, Michael!

Not the plonker anymore

My congratulations go to the now "SIr" David Jason, recently honored in the Queen (of England)'s birthday honors list.

Star of "A touch of Frost", and "The Darling Buds of May" (Catherine Zeta-Jones and Pam Ferris co-starred. The former went on to star in "The Mask Of Zorro", the latter as supporting role in "The Prisoner of Azbakhan" (Harry Potter))

But Sir David will always be remembered for his 22 years as dodgy wheeler-dealer "Del-Boy" Trotter in the BBC's "Only Fools and Horses".

Britain's favorite comedy series.

Living in a Hi-Rise in Peckham, London, Del-Boy, his younger brother Rodney, and Grandad, eked out a living as "Trotter's Independent Trading Company" in "New York Paris Peckham", trading in anything and everything they could get their hands on.

The most popular catch-phrase of them all was "You plonker, Rodney!"

Others included "Lovely Jubbly!" and "Cushtie!"

The meanings are respectively, "You idiot, Rodney!", "Lots of money" and "I am happy".

Sir David's first TV appearance was called "A sharp intake of breath".

I am sure he had one or two upon hearing that he is not the plonker anymore.

"Hello! HELLO! Here we go!"

Liverpool FC have been allowed back into the Champions League this season to defend the title they won so dramatically ten days ago.

UEFA changed its rules to accommodate the quadzillions of fans who campaigned.

Emmy, I told you to watch the press! (see "Crazy Horses" post)

As Clive Tyldesley said in the ITV commentary after Liverpool's first comeback goal to go 1-3, scored by captain Steve Gerrard:

"Hello! HELLO! Here we go!"

Just keep watching, Europe!

What is Electricity?

I have a healthy respect for Electricity. After all, it is both deadly and wondrous at the same time.

One of the benefits of studying science at this level is that you get to learn about how ordinary, everyday things work at the most basic level.

So what is Electricity? We all use it, but how does it work? All you scientists out there can maybe skip this post, as you already know all this, but knowing you guys, you will read it anyway out of curiosity to see if you disagree!

To start with, Electricity only happens in stuff with free electrons. An electron is part of an atom, the part that encircles the nucleus. In some stuff, electrons are rather free, as opposed to being bound in atoms. The latter, we call Insulators, the former, Conductors and Semi-conductors.

Electricity is basically the movement of these electrons from one end of a piece of stuff (usually called a "wire")to the other.

But what makes them move?

Scientists like to call it "electro-motive force"! Fancy name for a simple concept! Actually, the concept boils down to holding another piece of stuff to one end of our "wire". This other piece of stuff has lots and lots of extra electrons on it, and since electrons are repelled by each other (as they are all ugly), the free ones in our wire try to get away by moving along the wire. This movement is called "current".

Sounds simple. Well, it is.

However, on thing puzzled my young mind.

I discovered that the drift velocity of the electrons in the wire was only about 0.5 cm per second. Huh? But when I flick the light switch, the light comes on IMMEDIATELY! What is that all about?!?!?!?

I had to figure this out for myself.

And I reckon I should give my readers (I know I have them!) a chance to try and figure out the answer for themselves too, given my information above. Oh, and you will need one other snippet of information ~ the density of electrons in conductors is at least 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 to the cubic centimeter.

Good luck and watch out for future posts.

Memorial Day Blues

One of my colleagues here, Mr Rice, a venerable mountain of information, had a "discussion" today with a certain Miss Ethel Olsen, the same protagonists of my post a few posts ago.

It got ugly but needless to say, it ended fairly peacefully.

But at the time, it was not very pleasant to hear, especially for those younger colleagues, and I regarded both as not being very professional, even though Mr Rice said I supported him.

I remained neutral, as both are my friends.

Let me put the record straight by saying truthfully that I fully support you, Ethel. I regard Mr Rice as being out of line. Sometimes he lets his outspokenness get the better of him.

Please do not let this ruin the good cameraderie we have, anyone!

Da Vinci, Fibonacci, Assisi

I just finished reading Dan Brown's thriller, "The da Vinci Code". Nice book. Well crafted. Great thriller.

Essential to the plot are the "Da Vinci" numbers.......sorry, wrong historical Figure, I meant the "Fibonacci" numbers.

Those that go 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21....etc, each being the sum of the previous two. Remarkable? Not really.........unless you look closely at the world around you. These Fibonacci numbers are an integral part of the world we live in, as the book hinted at. Look at the spirals of the seeds in simple sunflowers, the way a tree branches, and you will find in the natural world, this number sequence is ubiquitous. If you take the ratio of successive terms, eg, 8/5, or 13/8, you get closer and closer to a "limiting number". This number is approximately 1.618. It is, of course, irrational.

Moreover, it is related to an entirely different branch of math.

Take a line and divide it into two parts "a" and "b" such that the ratio a/b is the same as b/(a+b). Simple algebra, upon substituting 1 for "a" will yield a simple quadratic equation. The roots to this equation are b = (1 +/- SQRT(5))/2, which gives us 1.618033988 and -0.618033988.

1.618. This is the exact same number from the Fibonacci sequence above. This did not go unnoticed by the Greeks, who called this number "The Golden Ratio", and gave it a letter like Pi. They called it Phi, another Greek letter. If you make a rectangle that is most pleasing to the eye, chances are, it will be close to a 3 by 5 rectangle, or an 8 by 13 rectangle. In other words, the "most pleasing" rectangle will be 1 by 1.618....

There's more.......

Phi is the only number in the cosmiverse to become its own reciprocal (that is, 1/phi) if 1 is subtracted.

(Phi - 1) equals (1/phi).

Before leaving sequences, check this one out -

1, 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6, 8, 8, 8, 10, 9, 10, 11, etc

It is a simply defined sequence, yet looks really erratic, especially when one gets to about 30 terms. I will reveal how it is generated in a future post. Meanwhile try and figure how it is generated. Hint - it is a relation to the Fibonacci sequence.


In closing, using cooking parlance, one might refer to both "Phi" and "Pi" as being as versatile as an egg.

Assisi.

For Those of You In The Know....

Well, it seems my last post provoked a few responses. Some not realising what this blog is about.

I thank you all for even taking notice of little me.

I have thanks for other people too. Mr "Rice", Miss "ETHEL OLSEN", and sundry others.

Sayonara