What’s the matter?

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Matter is anything that occupies space and has weight. It means everything!

Is air a matter? Yes it is, though you don’t see it but it occupies space and it has molecular mass of 29 g/mol. The air we breathe is composed of 21% Oxygen, 78% Nitrogen and 1% other gases.

Basically there are three states of matter and they are solid, liquid and gas. The other two are quite complex to understand and cannot occur in normal conditions, Plasma is the fourth one and Bose-Einstein condensate as the fifth state.

So let’s focus on Solid, Liquid and Gaseous states.

Solid has definite shape and volume. Examples are stone and steel.

Liquid has a definite volume but takes the shape of the container. Examples are water and oil.

Gas has neither definite volume nor a definite shape. Examples are oxygen and helium.

Some matters can exist not only on one state, a perfect example is water. Water is naturally in liquid state but once it is subjected to an increase in temperature can be converted to water vapor or when subjected to a decrease in temperature turn into ice.

from Chem4Kids

The change from one state to another, in water's case from ice to liquid, then from liquid to gas are called physical changes because it only changes the appearance but the composition will still be of water or H2O.

Uniquely Carbon: Graphite and Diamond

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Graphite (black) and Diamond (clear) are both pure Carbon.

The difference is in the structure or how the Carbon electrons are bonded together.

graphite structure

diamond structure

This makes Carbon really unique and interesting.

Chemical Name: Carbon
Chemical Symbol: C
Atomic Number: 6
Atomic Mass: 12

Carbon has 4 electron in it's out most shell (electronic configuration 1s2 2s2 2p2), it needs 4 more electrons to be stable (read my post on element stability).

The ability of Carbon to bond with itself and to create single, double and triple bonds is another of it's unique characteristic.

To explain all this is too much for a post, so I plan to make separate posts (I hope so) on it. The study of Carbon itself and its compounds is called Organic Chemistry.

2011 International Year for Chemistry

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And I just learned about it too. Thanks to our office newsletter which I seldom read.

I have this blog to share my love for Science particularly on Chemistry. And to share that it is also simple, interesting and fun. I can’t get enough of the vast knowledge Science has to offer. With that I am always on the look-out for new things to learn. We must instill that passion to our kids and youngsters.

I’ll share some items on the American Chemistry Society (ACS) booklet called “Celebrating Chemistry”.

Science: Tree of Knowledge

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When we say branches, the first thing in our mind is a tree. From one trunk sprouts branches, twigs then leaves.

So when we say Science it is one big tree of knowledge with the different fields as its branches.

Here I listed the major branches or divisions of Science as Pure and Applied Sciences, further comes other smaller branches or twigs like Physical Science, Life Science, etc. Down comes the leaves with Physics, Chemistry, Botany and the like.


Pure Sciences

1. Physical Science
-Physics
-Chemistry
-Astronomy

2. Life Science
-Botany
-Zoology
-Genetics

3. Earth Science
-Geology
-Seismology
-Oceanography

Applied Sciences

1. Mathematical Science
-Algebra
-Geometry
-Calculus

2. Social Sciences
-Anthropology
-Political Science
-Economics

3. Engineering
-Chemical Engineering
-Mechanical Engineering
-Electrical Engineering



I'll discuss those different Sciences (or maybe discussed some already) along the way.

Hazard Identification

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Read the label, make it a habit!

Whether you’re buying foods, medicine, insecticide, chemicals – it’s always better to be safe than sorry.

For foods and medicine be wary of the expiration dates, and if you’re health conscious also the sugars, carbs, salt in it, etc







For chemicals, look for the hazard label, code, logo or picture. It will give you the proper warning on how to use, handle, dispose, etc.

How can we apply these knowledge?

Pls read the email I received a few days ago...

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This is a Home Safety incident that happened on 13th May 2011 in Pune, India ..
Incident:
A housewife died due to burns sustained in the kitchen. Her husband too hospitalized for injury/burn while trying to rescue her.
What happened:
The gas stove was on, cooking under process. The housewife observed some cockroaches near the sink and grabbed a can of insect repellent and sprayed it near the gas stove, which was on/burning.
As a result, an explosion happened and in no time the housewife was covered in flames, sustained 65% burns. Her husband rushed in, tried to extinguish the flames and his clothes too caught fire. The husband is still being hospitalized in the burns ward and still unaware that his wife has succumbed, dead on arrival.
Let us Learn:
Insect repellent and other pressurized cans contain Flammable Material.
Did the poor lady realise the hazard involved? Apparently not!

Density

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It’s not a misspell, it is indeed Density and not Destiny because you are on my Science blog eh.

Okay, Density is defined as the mass per unit volume.

There was a running question (or joke - but not really funny), which is heavier 1 Kg of cotton or 1Kg of nail?

The obvious answer is- it both has the same weight.

But the correct question should be which is more dense?

And the correct answer is the nail.

Why?

Because although they have the same weight or mass (which is 1 Kg), the volume occupied by the cotton is more than the volume of the nail.

So let’s assume, the volume of cotton is 2 cm3 and nail is 0.5 cm3, the density of cotton and nail can be computed using the formula:

Density = mass/ volume

Density of cotton = 1 Kg/ 2 cm3 = 0.5 Kg/cm3

Density of nail = 1 Kg/ 0.5 cm3 = 2.0 Kg/cm3

Therefore, nail is more dense than cotton.

But I’ll give you a shorter way to determine which is more or which is less without the computation perse.

If you will submerge it with water, which one will sink and which one will float?

Of course the nail will sink and the cotton will float.

There goes the same answer, the nail is more dense while the cotton is less dense.

Why?

Because density of water is always 1 and used as THE standard.

So things (liquid or solid) with density more than 1 will sink,

While things (liquid or solid) with density less than 1 will float.

I always encourage people even myself to ask, because that’s how you learn things.

Gets?

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And while we’re on the topic, some use the word ‘dense’ to describe persons who cannot grasp things (like if your crush doesn’t understand your pa-cute ways)…

So when people call you dense don’t be happy about it because it means you’re less than 1 (the standard).

Gets?

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It’s been a whole year since my last post…

my apologies to my blog and my readers (if any)…

Instability

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Unstable life, unstable work, unstable relationship…why oh why?

Don’t know why either.

Maybe we could learn something at microscopic viewpoint.

As mentioned before, naturally electrons are unstable, except for inert gases, you’ll learn later why.

But first let me introduce you first to a very important tool – The Periodic Table!

(this is only a part of Periodic Table since I just took a print screen, if you want the complete version get it from www.ptable.com )

The number of electrons an element has depends on the atomic number. It is the number that is usually placed as superscript.

So Hydrogen H has one valence electron, Helium He has 2 and so on.

The first energy level must be filled with 2 electrons to be stable, then the following energy levels must have 8 electrons.

So basically only those inert gases (on the most right side column) are stable and the rest of the elements seek their destined partners.

Love aka Chemical Bonds

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Elements like people are very unstable. They both search though life for their partners. But in the case of elements it can have a max of 4 bonds (maybe Islam got their idea from this!). And once they bonded they stay like that forever unless an outside force caused them to separate. A real life drama.

There are different kinds of bonds: covalent bonds, ionic bonds and metallic bonds.

Covelent Bonds is where elements or atoms share their electrons. Talk about true love…hahaha…

Whereas Ionic Bonds, mostly happens between a metal and a non-metal, where the non-metal gains control of the electron/s and the other giving it up. Hmp, selfish love (non-metal) vs unselfish love (metal)…but this is more common in real life…

Metallic bonds are harder to explain, really techie, but as the name implies it is a bond between metals and usually of the same kind. Homo love...haha...

Life and Science

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I find science very fascinating!

Imagine the whole universe conniving and constantly on the go 24/7.

The planets revolving, and yet never bump with each other. (Astronomy)

The tiny egg and sperm cells joining together, how it develops into a baby and all these actions happened in the womb of a mother! (Biology)

The formation of water from hydrogen and oxygen atoms. (Chemistry)

But above all, I am more enthralled with the one who created the minute details of this and that, God, He is definitely omnipotent! All the glory should be yours, now and forever!