Physical Science

Gunpowder is a simple mixture that supports rapid combustion. Its composition has slightly varied over the centuries, and can in fact be made using different proportions of the ingredients. The different blends affect the speed and how completely the mixture…
Read more

Oxidation numbers do not have a true physical significance in the real world, but they are tremendously useful as a book-keeping method when estimating oxidation states. In practice, students utilize oxidation numbers most frequently when balancing redox reactions (see the…
Read more

Astrophotography is a type of specialized photography which entails taking photographs of celestial bodies such as the moon, stars, planets, galaxies, nebulas, and any other celestial objects. For the beginner, it’s not that difficult to get started. If all you…
Read more

A polyatomic ion is two or more atoms that are covalently bonded to one another and possess a charge. (The charge differentiates them from covalent compounds, which are neutral.) While the definition is nice to have, it doesn’t help much…
Read more

It’s one of the most exciting things that could ever happen. Getting Water to Burn! With this, we can see big potential in the future use of water. I don’t know about you, but there is a movie called “Chain…
Read more

Environmental regulations on Mars may be doing more harm than good. That’s the conclusion of two scientists, astronomer Alberto G. Fairen of Cornell University and Dirke Schulze-Makuch of Washington State University, whose research was published in the journal Nature Geoscience…
Read more

Easter is an interesting holiday for astronomical reasons. The Christian Church didn’t pick the date out of thin air. It is based on an ancient lunar calendar using the Jewish calculation for Passover, the 14th day of Nisan, the month…
Read more

Man has a long history with the reddish metallic element copper (Cu). The name of the element derives from the Latin word “cuprum” meaning “from the island Cyprus”. Cyprus supplied many of the ancient European civilizations with their supply of…
Read more

Everyone would have learnt about the periodic table of elements at some point in their lives, most likely at school in science lessons. If one is not keen on science, it would have been a passing experience to fulfil the…
Read more

Assuming you aren’t asking about “The Simpsons”, where the Isotopes are Springfield’s less than stellar baseball team, read on. Every ELEMENT is defined by the number of PROTONS found in its nucleus. An ISOTOPE is a particular variant of an…
Read more