Calculating the Molarity of Water Chemistry teachers often like to challenge their students with this one. It combines the use of concentration, density, and molar mass all in one problem, along with an added twist. (What could a truly warped…
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Stephen Hawking is perhaps the geekiest geek who ever geeked. He has got the eye glasses, and (literally, Oxford) button down collars. He doesn’t box, or play Rugby, and his love of math, physics and astronomy is legend. Hawking has…
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In explaining how smoke detectors work it is all too easy to launch into technical jargon that would only interest the more intellectual reader. That is the type of reader would would spend hours on the net investigating the mating…
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Calcium, a white silvery soft alkaline metal, forms about 3% of the earth’s crust and is placed 22nd in the periodic table, after magnesium. Rarely found in its raw form, it is often sequestered or locked in limestone, fluorite and…
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Just hearing the word helium brings thoughts of party balloons and squeaky voices. Helium, however, is serious business. Many fields of endeavor rely on a consistent supply of helium to function. Although many people are unaware of it, we are…
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If you take an introductory chemistry class, you will no doubt memorize a list of shapes that correspond to particular combinations of lone pairs and bonds around a central atom. Very simple molecules can be classified this way, and based…
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The U.S. is running out of helium. And it’s not something to make light of. The largest U.S. helium reserve is depleting as U.S. helium suppliers export the gas to an expanding international market. According to the International Balloon Association,…
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When one thinks of the well-known element, helium, images of shiny balloons and squeaky voices usually enter their heads. Helium is, however, much more diverse than that. Helium, which is the second element listed on the Periodic Table has a…
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Calcium is plentiful in the human body and it is plentiful in the earth and rocks and soil. In this capacity it is the isotope calcium 40, the one of the six that is more plentiful; it is the type…
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Helium is an important industry in the United States. So much so an important part of the economy of the United States that special legislation was passed in 1996 protecting its use and assuring it would be available as needed….
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