Chemistry Help Topic

[mikey]

I wasn't really in a position to observe, as I was kind of trying to not die. But it was pretty violet, I can tell you that much.

had to fix that for you

[Altissimo]

whoo I'm taking General Chemistry to fulfill my lab science requirement in college. well I will be, college starts on Monday. I enjoyed high school chemistry so I'm looking forward to this \o/ hopefully it won't be too difficult
(tho it helps that a good friend's mom is both a) a chemistry professor and b) a chemistry professor at my university so even though she's not teaching the class I can still probably ask her for help)
that is all

[Maelstrom]

Just remember,
Chem is fun.

[TheMarioPianist]

Well, I'll do the best I can here.

HCl: "Hydrochloric acid is a clear, colorless, highly pungent solution of hydrogen chloride (HCl) in water." (This is why you never look stuff up on Wikipedia; you get stuff like this.) To simplify, it's a liquid in solution (mixed) with water. It is also an acid (of course) and that makes it corrosive. As in, it burns holes through stuff (depending on how strong it is).As you might be able to tell by the name, a molecule of HCl contains one atom of Hydrogen and one atom of Chlorine held together by a polar covalent bond. What this basically means is, the electrons that are shared in the bond hang around the Cl atom more than the H atom. Because of this, the Cl side has a slightly negative charge, while the H side has a slightly positive charge (kind of like a magnet). Now, the positives and negatives might remind you of ionic bonds, but remember: in an ionic bond, electrons are donated. Electrons are still being shared here, just not equally. Since they are being shared, and not completely donated, the charges are weaker. When we go more into molecular geometry (if we go that far) you will be able to tell if a molecule is polar or not. Did you know that water is also polar? It looks like this.

               _
               O
             /  \
           H     H
           +     +

In this case, the oxygen pulls the electrons toward it, kinda like a pull star in SMG! In terms of health, HCl's affect depends on the molarity of it. (All HCl is mixed with water, molarity just defines the ratio of how the HCl is diluted in the water. The higher the molarity, the more HCl there is as compared to the amount of water.) So, basically, a higher molarity is a greater health risk. Really strong HCl can burn through skin, possibly to the bone. But that's enough about HCl and H₂O. Let's move on to Bromine!

Br: Bromine is #35 on the periodic table. It is what we call a halogen. The main thing that this means is it is "salt producing." When it reacts with metals, it produces salts. To explain what I mean, take common table salt, one of the most common salts as well as one of the most common formulas in chemistry. It's formula is NaCl. Now look at a periodic table (one that has the columns labelled as 1A, 2A, 3B, etc. Locate column 7A. (Could also be labelled as VIIA or 17, depending on which version you have). Which part of salt is in that column? Yes, it is Cl. That element is the halogen. (Sodium, Na, is the metal.) Now take a look at the names Chlorine and Bromine for a second. What do they have in common. If you guessed that they both have 2 syllables, that is absolutely positively incorrect. However, if you mentioned that they both end in -ine, you are on the right track. In fact, every element in the column ends in -ine! (Except Ununseptium, a placeholder element. The Ununsept part literally just stands for 117. An isotope of this element has not been created that lasted long enough for scientists to measure anything about it.) Let's go back to our salt example. How do you translate NaCl into words? Sodium chlorine, right? Wrong. Note this spelling change: Sodium chloride. Whenever you form salts, the second element changes from ine to ide. This tells you two things. One, that it is a salt (assuming it is bonded with a metal) and it is ionic. Remember that term? It means that the metal donates an electron to the halogen to make it happy! Not much detail about bromine in terms of health, other than that bromine poisoning is a serious thing that would send you to the hospital for sure.

[ThatGamer]

Well, I'll do the best I can here.

HCl: "Hydrochloric acid is a clear, colorless, highly pungent solution of hydrogen chloride (HCl) in water." (This is why you never look stuff up on Wikipedia; you get stuff like this.) To simplify, it's a liquid in solution (mixed) with water. It is also an acid (of course) and that makes it corrosive. As in, it burns holes through stuff (depending on how strong it is).As you might be able to tell by the name, a molecule of HCl contains one atom of Hydrogen and one atom of Chlorine held together by a polar covalent bond. What this basically means is, the electrons that are shared in the bond hang around the Cl atom more than the H atom. Because of this, the Cl side has a slightly negative charge, while the H side has a slightly positive charge (kind of like a magnet). Now, the positives and negatives might remind you of ionic bonds, but remember: in an ionic bond, electrons are donated. Electrons are still being shared here, just not equally. Since they are being shared, and not completely donated, the charges are weaker. When we go more into molecular geometry (if we go that far) you will be able to tell if a molecule is polar or not. Did you know that water is also polar? It looks like this.

               _
               O
             /  \
           H     H
           +     +

In this case, the oxygen pulls the electrons toward it, kinda like a pull star in SMG! In terms of health, HCl's affect depends on the molarity of it. (All HCl is mixed with water, molarity just defines the ratio of how the HCl is diluted in the water. The higher the molarity, the more HCl there is as compared to the amount of water.) So, basically, a higher molarity is a greater health risk. Really strong HCl can burn through skin, possibly to the bone. But that's enough about HCl and H₂O. Let's move on to Bromine!

Br: Bromine is #35 on the periodic table. It is what we call a halogen. The main thing that this means is it is "salt producing." When it reacts with metals, it produces salts. To explain what I mean, take common table salt, one of the most common salts as well as one of the most common formulas in chemistry. It's formula is NaCl. Now look at a periodic table (one that has the columns labelled as 1A, 2A, 3B, etc. Locate column 7A. (Could also be labelled as VIIA or 17, depending on which version you have). Which part of salt is in that column? Yes, it is Cl. That element is the halogen. (Sodium, Na, is the metal.) Now take a look at the names Chlorine and Bromine for a second. What do they have in common. If you guessed that they both have 2 syllables, that is absolutely positively incorrect. However, if you mentioned that they both end in -ine, you are on the right track. In fact, every element in the column ends in -ine! (Except Ununseptium, a placeholder element. The Ununsept part literally just stands for 117. An isotope of this element has not been created that lasted long enough for scientists to measure anything about it.) Let's go back to our salt example. How do you translate NaCl into words? Sodium chlorine, right? Wrong. Note this spelling change: Sodium chloride. Whenever you form salts, the second element changes from ine to ide. This tells you two things. One, that it is a salt (assuming it is bonded with a metal) and it is ionic. Remember that term? It means that the metal donates an electron to the halogen to make it happy! Not much detail about bromine in terms of health, other than that bromine poisoning is a serious thing that would send you to the hospital for sure.

Well, I understand 1% of this. I'm not going to bother trying because I'm lazy...

[TheMarioPianist]

Well, I understand 1% of this. I'm not going to bother trying because I'm lazy...

What don't you understand? I can definitely simplify it more. I'm here to help!

[ThatGamer]

What don't you understand? I can definitely simplify it more. I'm here to help!

I will surely learn it in High School. I don't really need this too much...

[TheMarioPianist]

I will surely learn it in High School. I don't really need this too much...

Absolutely! No problem saying that. If you want me to explain something at any point, just say the word!

[ThatGamer]

Absolutely! No problem saying that. If you want me to explain something at any point, just say the word!

\

Okay, only if I fail science like the last three years! (which hopefully won't happen...)

[TheMarioPianist]

\

Okay, only if I fail science like the last three years! (which hopefully won't happen...)

Hey, that's not a good attitude! Be more optimistic! I'm sure you will do superbly in science this year!

[ThatGamer]

Hey, that's not a good attitude! Be more optimistic! I'm sure you will do superbly in science this year!

Well, I'll try to be optimistic...

I probably will pass, anyways, since I'm not doing homework while playing on NSM this year lol. (its a special school, far easier then regular!  ))