10Mar 2020 by Vincent Summers No Comments

What’s the Difference Between Static Electricity and ‘Regular’ Electricity?

Electrical, Meteorology
[caption id="attachment_26762" align="alignright" width="480"] A thunderstorm - Image by Felix Mittermeier[/caption]Is static electricity different from regular electricity, or is there simply something different about how it is formed and how it behaves? What, for that matter, is electricity? Obviously it involves electrons. Electricity, Your Ordinary Household Variety A household circuit is just that. It's a circuit - a kind of conductive circle that allows electrons to flow through a device that uses some of them to function. Flow is the key. Flow is the word. Consider a water hose. When you turn the water on, does it trickle out or burst out? The amperage, like the water in the hose, represents the amount of electrons. The voltage is comparable to the pressure of the flow. Finally, flow suggests dynamic energy,…
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05Mar 2018 by Vincent Summers No Comments

Acid-Base and REDOX (Oxidation-Reduction) Chemical Reactions

Chemistry
[caption id="attachment_19477" align="alignright" width="440"] Rocketry thrives due to REDOX reactions.[/caption] Acid-Base and Redox: When they can, chemists categorize chemical reactions into types. Some specialized varieties of chemical reaction include those named for specific individuals involved in their discovery. As examples, there are the Diels-Alder reaction, the Claisen rearrangement, the Dieckmann condensation, and the Friedel-Crafts alkylation. Yet, many chemical reactions can be classified simply as acid-base reactions, or as oxidation-reduction (REDOX) reactions. Consider examples of each... Acid-Base Reactions When I was young, I was deeply interested in rocketry. My parents bought me one of those red plastic rockets that included a pump. You partly filled the rocket with water, then pumped air into it until the pressure made it difficult to pump more. Then you aimed it upward and pushed a…
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20Aug 2014 by Vincent Summers 6 Comments

Cesium Auride – Relativistic Electrons?

Chemistry
[caption id="attachment_7305" align="alignright" width="440"] Imagine relativistic electrons.[/caption] Strange isn't the word for cesium auride. Gold in liquid form? Indeed, yes! Discovered more than a half century ago, the properties of this cesium and gold compound are not yet fully understood. There are all sorts of curios in chemistry. Chemists love them dearly. I still remember one particularly strange molecule. It was affectionately named hexamethyl bathroom tile. Free Lectures Recently I listened to some free online chemistry lectures. They were produced by MIT under its OpenCourseWare program. One of those lectures spoke of an alloy of cesium and gold that acts like a salt, cesium auride. Key to its forming is the difference in electronegativity between cesium and gold. It is roughly the same as the difference between sodium and iodine!…
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19Mar 2014 by Vincent Summers No Comments

Why Metals Conduct Electricity

Electrical, Physics
[caption id="attachment_19272" align="alignright" width="480"] High Voltage Lines.[/caption] Elements are divided into metals, metalloids, and non-metals. Copper is a metal. Sulfur is a non-metal. Antimony is a metalloid. Why do metals conduct electricity? What makes them special? It involves electron mobility—their ability to move about. Individual Atoms and Diatomic Molecules Atoms have a positive nucleus encased by negative orbiting electrons. Atoms of a single substance either stand alone or bind together in small groups only. Helium (He) is monatomic. Hydrogen (H₂) is diatomic. Ionic and Covalent Crystalline Solids Some solids may form crystals. The atoms are packed close together. There are three crystal types. Ionic, covalent, metallic. Ionic crystals conduct some electricity. They are not as conductive as metals because their bonds are local. Their crystals are rigid. They fracture. They…
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17Jan 2014 by Vincent Summers 1 Comment

Examples of Atoms That are Ionized

Chemistry
[caption id="attachment_15556" align="alignleft" width="440"] H +1, H atom, H -1. Image by Jkwchui CC-by-SA3.0[/caption] Not all atoms are atoms that are ionized. All atoms have a nucleus containing protons and neutrons. That nucleus is surrounded by one or more orbitals that contain electrons. The total charge of a neutral atom equals zero. The number of protons equals the number of electrons. If the number of electrons increases or decreases, an atom is ionized. It is either a cation (positive ion) or an anion (negative ion). Atoms That Are Ionized The same thing can happen to small collections of bonded atoms. By definition, an atom oxidizes to a cation or reduces to an anion. Positively Charged Atoms (Cations) Atoms that are ionized have lost energy and become more stable in so…
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