25Jul 2019 by Vincent Summers No Comments

Ozone – The Other Oxygen: A Brief Discussion

Chemistry, Physics
Ozone (O3), a triatomic form of the ordinarily diatomic oxygen (O2), is a curious species. We will discuss some of ozone's curious physical properties. We will not include information related to health or the environment. Molecular Bonding Just as it takes two points to determine a straight line, diatomic oxygen is also linear. It's bond length is 1.208 Å (equal to 120.8 pm). Ozone is not linear; it is bent at an angle of 116.8o, which is greater than the measure of the angle for a water molecule, 104.5o. Comparing Boiling Points The third oxygen atom plus the relatively large angle suggests ozone should boil at a higher temperature than oxygen. In fact, this is the case. This is because the bent ozone molecules, as seen in the illustration, produces…
Read More
17Apr 2019 by Vincent Summers 3 Comments

How Many Different Kinds of Water – Water Isotopes – are In Your Glass?

Food, Health
[caption id="attachment_23779" align="alignright" width="480"] Water. Just water. Image by Rollingroscoe.[/caption] The woman of the house comes out of her garden. Having worked for hours, she has a “powerful” thirst that only a glass of water can quench. She opens the freezer door, clinks a few cubes of ice into her glass, and then turns to the sink and fills the voids between the cubes with pure water from the tap. Water consists of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom – H2O. At first thought, it would seem there should only be one kind of water. This is not accurate, however. That is so because there are isotopes of both hydrogen and oxygen. To understand what an isotope is, it is important to realize that the number of protons in…
Read More
09Sep 2015 by Vincent Summers 2 Comments

Comparing Hemoglobin and Chlorophyll

Biology, Medicine
[caption id="attachment_7766" align="alignright" width="440"] Hemoglobin tetramer ribbon CC-by-SA3.0 Zephyris[/caption] Are there similarities between the plant and animal world, for instance, between hemoglobin and chlorophyll? In nature, one can expect many parallels. Many animals have four feet. There are apes, lions, camels, and tortoises. Are all these related? Not really. Again, nearly all animals have two eyes in their head. Is there significance beyond the fact that this enables stereoscopic vision along an excellent line-of-sight? And so we come to the two substances most closely associated with life processes: the chlorophyll of plant life and the hemoglobin of animal life. Chlorophyll produces the food plants need for survival. Hemoglobin carries nutrients and oxygen essential to animal life. Although animals and plants are different, there are interesting parallels to be seen in…
Read More
03Mar 2014 by Vincent Summers No Comments

Propane and Oxygen Combustion Question

Chemistry
[caption id="attachment_16612" align="alignright" width="480"] Propane[/caption] Problem: We desire to learn how much oxygen is needed to completely consume a certain quantity of propane gas. Our hydrocarbon and oxygen combustion question follows the basic reaction path, C3H8 + 5 O2 → 4 H2O + 3 CO2 If we have the following conditions: Temperature = 75 Celsius (348 Kelvin) Pressure = 720 / 760 mm = 0.95 atm Moles propane = 40.8 grams / 44.1 grams molecular weight = 0.93 moles How Much Oxygen to Burn the Propane? What volume of oxygen is needed to accomplish the burning of the 0.93 moles of the hydrocarbon? 5 times 0.93 moles of C3H8 burned = 4.65 moles of oxygen The ideal gas law reads: PV = nRT where P= the pressure, V= the volume, and…
Read More
08Dec 2013 by Vincent Summers 5 Comments

Which Weighs More – Wet Air or Dry Air?

Meteorology
[caption id="attachment_5407" align="alignright" width="440"] CCA Share Alike 3.0 Unported by Santhosh kumar[/caption] Air is mostly a mixture of gases and plus water vapor. The primary two gases are nitrogen and oxygen. We will state up front that the traces of other substances in air don’t affect the outcome of whether wet air or dry air is heavier. It all has to do with molecular weights. Nitrogen Nitrogen is a diatomic gas—chemical formula N₂. Its atomic weight is 14, therefore its molecular weight is 28. Nitrogen constitutes 78% of the atmosphere. [caption id="attachment_14807" align="alignright" width="280"] Barometer[/caption] Oxygen Oxygen is also a diatomic gas—chemical formula O₂. Its atomic weight is 16, therefore its molecular weight is 32. Oxygen constitutes 21% of the atmosphere. Dry Air Again, not considering the traces of other…
Read More