Elements 114 and 116 are Officially Recognized

In June the NY Times reported that IUPAC has officially recognized the existence of elements 114 and 116.  Their discovery was first reported in 2004 and 2006.  For now their names will be Ununquadium (symbol Uuq, Latin for 114) and Ununhexium (Symbol Uuh, Latin for 116).  Eventually they will receive official names and symbols.  These things take some time, so check back in about 5 years and I should have the official names.

More images from the intersection of Art and Science

These appeared in the NY Times and come from Princeton University's Art of Science Competition.

Science meets Body Art

The NY Times science section had this spectacular gallery of science themed tattoos.  The tattoos come from a variety of sciences and math.  Definitely worth checking out.  And NO, I am not advocating you go out and get a tattoo.

News flash: Science is a Hard Major

Came across this in the paper this weekend.  It turns out science is a hard major.  Actually this has been known for a long time.  What surprised me is the very high percentage of students who start out as a science major, but never get a science degree, or even any degree at all.  This is not something that is lost on my colleagues at Schoharie, and we will be making a push to have the school board require four years of science.  Not sure if it will happen, but we are going to ask and make a case for it.

Unununium, I hardly knew you

Names for elements 110, 111, 112 have been officially approved.  I stumbled upon this article in the NY times today indicating that the general assembly of IUPAC (the international union for pure and applied chemistry) has officially approved the names for elements Ununnilium, Unununium, Ununbium.  These names are simply the latin names for 110, 111, and 112 respectively.  Once an element is discovered and is confirmed the element's temporary name is simply the latin name of its atomic number.  Then a (long) process begins to give the element an official name.  For example, elements 110, 111, 112 were all discovered in the ealry 1990's.  Their proposed names were accepted in the early 2000's, and on 1 Nov. 2011, those proposed names were officially approved.  I suppose you would like to know the official names for these elements?  Well, for that you must read the article (or look at a periodic table).  I will tell you, however, that they are named after the city in which they were discovered, and two famous scientists.  Their symbols are Ds, Rg, and Cn.

Reminder to Students

Given you have yet another long weekend, and the correlation between long weekends and assignments that have been "forgotten", I wanted to give you the following reminders:

Regents Chemistry:

Period 2 - labs 4 and 5 are due Monday, 7 November.

Period 4 - labs 4 and 5 are due Tuesday, 8 November (No, period 2 I do not like them better, they performed these labs the day after you did).

AP Chemistry:

Molecular Geometry take home test is due Monday, 7 November.

ALL STUDENTS: First Quarter officially ends on 10 November.  If you have any backwork or assignments, it MUST be taken care of by the close of business on Monday, 7 November.  This will give me the time I need to grade your back work!

Imagine the hysteria. . .

. . .if this were to happen in Dec. of 2012.  It does not sound like the asteroid will be visible to the naked eye, but if you are interested in this sort of thing, it may be worth it to you to dress your eye up with the lens of an optical telescope - a basic one should do. I would love to hear from anyone who spots it.  In fact, I would love to hear from anyone.

The Khan Academy

The Khan Academy is a free online school founded in 2006 by Salman Khan.  Khan stated he wanted to establish an educational institution that was free and open to anyone anywhere.  His academy currently offers over 2600 micro lectures on a wide range of academic subjects.  There are dozens of videos on chemistry, physics and math that would provide a great supplement to your course work.  There are also dozens of SAT prep materials all accessible for free.  If nothing else, I would encourage you to check it out.  This will take you to an NPR story on the use of the math videos in an historically failing school. 

Now That We Have Unexpectedly Missed Class on Friday. . .

. . .what should you expect on Monday?

Regents Chemistry: You were scheduled to have a quiz on Friday 28 October.  You will have that quiz on Monday, 31 October.

AP Chemistry: You were scheduled to have a quiz on Monday; you will still have that quiz on Monday, 31 October. 

Appeal: Most students do not follow this blog from what I can tell.  I am hoping that as the year goes on this will change.  If you read this blog over the weekend (28 Oct.-30 Oct.) please pass the word to your classmates that they will have a quiz on Monday.

Mole day, come and gone. . .but still worth celebrating

It is that time of year again. Time to celebrate National Mole Day!  Mole day officially arrives at 6:02 am on October 23rd, but I will likely still be sleeping when the clock strikes 6:02, but then again it will be mole day all day long!  Read on below to find out some interesting facts about the mole.

A mole is similar to the concept of a dozen.  A dozen, of course, means any collection of 12 things.  Similarly, a mole is any collection of 602,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 things.  This is a fantastically large number, so much so in fact that it is hard for us to comprehend how large it is.  The following should help provide a useful context:

If you had a mole of dollars, then you could spend $19,089,294.77 a second, every second, for the next billion years before you ran out.

If you lived for 602,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds you would be 19,089,294,770,000,000 years old.  True, it is not immortality, but perhaps a close second.  If you do live that long, hopefully you won't age accordingly, otherwise you would be like living dust.

Let's see if you understand the mole any better.  Which of the following quantities of water would contain approximately a mole of water molecules?
A)  All the water in all of the oceans combined
B) All the water in all of the great lakes combined
C) An olympic swimming pool full of water
D) A gallon of water
E) A shot glass of water
F) A dew drop of water
G) None of these, all of the water on the planet added together is less than a mole

NOTE: This post was originally written on 21 October, but then computer glitches happened (the ol' fabled curse of the mole?) and iI was not able to publish it again until (sadly) today, a day after mole day.  Apologies to all of my 1 follower out there!

The Nuclear Atom is 100 Years Old!

This week in chemistry we have been discussing the various models of the atom beginning with Dalton's Solid Sphere model.  Part of this story (a rather big part) is Ernest Rutherford's nuclear model, which was first announced in 1911.  In March, the New York Times ran this story to acknowledge the centennial.

The various models of the atom:

Some Chemistry Humor

A former student shared this with me by way of facebook.  I had to post it here.

Thanks to J.P. Wolfe for passing this on.

Nobel Prize in Chemistry Awarded

Israeli chemist, Daniel Schechtman, was awared the the 2011 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his discovery in 1982 of quasi-crystals.  Quasi-crystals are solids in which the atoms are arranged in regular patterns (that is the pattern can be described mathematically), but the pattern does not repeat itself.  So radical is this claim that when Schechtman originally announced his findings he was asked to leave his research team.  You can read the official press release here. 

Chemistry the week of 3 October to 7 October

Regents Chemistry

Topics Covered: Vapor pressure, vapor pressure curves (reference table H).  The Gas Laws.

Quiz: To Be Announced

Lab 3 Heating and Cooling Curves: Period 2/3 Thursday 6 October
                                            Period 3/4  Friday 7 October

Lab 2 Heat of Fusion of Ice due for all classes on 7 October by 3:00Homework: Gas Laws assignment, Due: Thursday 6 October; p. 105, 44-50; pp. 54-56, 47-66.  Must Show work.  DUE: Friday 7 October

AP Chemistry

Topics Covered: Chemical Periodicity.

Quiz: Periodicity - Thursday, 6 October
Take Home Test: Distributed Friday 7 October due Wednesday 12 October

Homework: READ chapter 7 pp. 266-26: 3, 17, 20, 21, 23, 31, 33, 35, 37.   DUE: Thursday 6 October


Let me know if you have questions!

Nobel Prize in Physics awarded

Today the Nobel committee awarded the prize in physics.  The prize was awarded to two American scientists and an Australian who separately concluded that the rate at which the universe is expanding is accelerating.  This is an enormously important discovery.  The big bang theory explains why the universe is expanding, but according to that theory the rate should be slowing down.  The observation that the universe's expansion is accelerating means there is something else at play.  This something else has been called dark energy.  You can read the official press release here.

Chemistry the Week of 26 September to 30 September

Regents Chemistry

Topics Covered: Heating and Cooling Curves, formulas for calculating heat energy lost or gained by a sunstance as it is heated, cooled, or undergoing a phase change.

Quiz: Period 2 Thursday 29 September
         Period 4 Friday 30 September

Lab 2 Heat of Fusion Water: Period 2/3 Friday 30 September
                                            Period 3/4  Thursday 29 September

Lab 1 Measurement and Density due for all classes on 30 September by 3:00

Homework: pp. 75-76; 19, 20, 26, 27, 28 plus the following problem from the board: What is the total amount of energy needed to heat a 20 gram sample of water from -10 degrees to steam at 115 degrees?  Show work.  DUE: Thursday, 29 September

AP Chemistry

Topics Covered: Electron configurations of many-electron atoms, orbital diagrams.

Quiz: Atomic Structure - Friday, 30 September

Homework: pp. 232-233 61, 63, 65, 66, 68, 70, 71, 77, 81.  DUE: 30 Friday, September

Let me know if you have questions!

Musica Universalis

That would be the music of the spheres.  In the old days it was thought that the movements of the heavenly spheres (sun, moon, stars etc.) generated a form of music through their harmonic and proportional movements.  This was not thought to be a music that you could hear, but more of a mathematical concept (and for Aristotle even religious to the extent that the motion was sustained by the Prime Mover).  Wikipedia has an intertesting article on this topic here.  I bring it up at all because two students of mine came across this recent news.  It turns out that Saturn does produce its own "music", and thanks to modern science we can now hear it.  It is a phenomenal and almost haunting series of sounds.  Give it a listen if you have a chance.

Thanks to Alyssa Gullotto and Shawn Hoose for passing the link along.

Welcome

This blog was set up to be a tool for my high school chemistry classes, both regents level, and AP. From this page students (and parents) will be able to find homework assignments, post questions, and discuss chem/science topics. I encourage students to visit frequently and use this as a way to keep on top of their work. Let me know how I can help you.