15 Amazing chemistry facts, you don't want to miss!!
BY: Salami kehinde
As you all know
chemistry is full of amazing discoveries relating to our day to day activities
in one way or the other. Did you know?
some fun , interesting and overlooked facts of the fascinating science
of chemistry. Chemistry is a fascinating subject full of unusual trivia, facts,
and stats. Here are a few of the amazing ones.
1.
Glass
is actually a liquid, it just flows very, very slowly.
Being
neither liquid, nor solid, explaining glass is a lot harder than some might
think. In a glass, molecules still flow, but at a very low rate that it’s
barely perceptible. As such, it’s not enough to class glasses as a liquid, but
neither as a solid. Instead, chemists classify glasses as amorphous solids— a
state somewhere between those two states of matter. There’s also a thing called
metal glass – a class of materials that are three times stronger than titanium
and have the elastic modulus of bone, all while being extremely lightweight
2.
The
only two non-silvery metals are gold and copper.
Gold:
A metal is an element that readily forms positive ions (cations) and has
metallic bonds. These elements have electrons that are loosely held to the
atoms, and will readily transfer them. This is why metals are great electrical
and thermal conductors — because the electrons move energy. Most metals’
electrons reflect colors equally, so the sun’s light is reflected as white.
Gold and copper, however, happen to absorb blue and violet light, leaving
yellow light. It’s worth noting here that copper is also the only metal that is
naturally antibacterial.
3.
Lightning
strikes produce Ozone, hence the characteristic smell after lightning storms
Lightning-
Ozone, the triple oxygen molecule that acts as a protective stratospheric
blanket against ultraviolet rays, is created in nature by lightning. When it
strikes, the lightning cracks oxygen molecules in the atmosphere into radicals
which reform into ozone. The smell of ozone is very sharp, often described as
similar to that of chlorine. This is why you get that “clean” smell sensation
after a thunderstorm.
4.
Water
expands when freezes, unlike other substances
Typically,
when something is cold, it shrinks. That’s because temperature describes atomic
vibration — the more vibration, the more space it takes, hence expansion. Water
is an exception. Even though it vibrates less when it’s frozen, the ice
occupies more volume. That’s due to the strange shape of the water molecule.
When
water freezes it releases energy because a lot of extra strong bonds can be
made. But it does take up more
space. And so, ice expands when it
freezes. Another interesting fact worth mentioning is that hot water freezes
faster than cold water.
5.
Superfluid
Helium defies gravity and climbs on walls.
Helium
superfluid: A remarkable transition occurs in the properties of liquid helium
at the temperature 2.17K (very close to absolute zero), called the “lambda
point” for helium. Part of the liquid becomes a “superfluid”, a zero-viscosity
fluid which will move rapidly through any pore in the apparatus.
6.
If you
pour a handful of salt into a glass of water, the water level will go down.
When
you step inside a bathtub, the water level will immediately go up, per Archimedes’
law. But when you add a volume of sodium chloride (salt) to a volume of water,
the overall volume actually decreases by up to 2%. What gives? The net
reduction in observed volume is due to solvent molecules which become more
ordered in the vicinity of dissolved ions.
7.
The
rarest naturally-occurring element in the Earth’s crust is astatine.
Astatine-
Named after the Greek word for unstable (astatos), Astatine is a naturally
occurring semi-metal produced from the decay of uranium and thorium. In its
most stable form, the element has a half-time of only 8.1 hours. The entire
crust appears to contain about 28 g of the element. If scientists ever have to
use it, they basically have to make it from scratch. Only 0.00000005 grams of
astatine have been made so far.
8.
DNA is a flame retardant
DNA fire
DNA,
also known as the blueprint for life, contains all the biological instructions
that make each species unique. The molecule of life is also surprisingly
sturdy, being considered a natural flame retardant and suppressant. Its flame
retardant properties are due to DNA’s chemical structure — when heated, the
phosphate-containing backbone produces phosphoric acid, which chemically
removes water, leaving behind a flame-resistant, carbon-rich residue. Other
bases, such as nitrogen, react to produce ammonia which inhibits combustion. In
the future, researchers plan on coating fabric with DNA to make inflammable
clothing.
9.
One inch of rain is equal to 10 inches of snow.
When
the temperature is around 30 degrees F (0 degrees C), one inch of liquid
precipitation would fall as 10 inches of snow — assuming the rainfall is all
snow.
10.A rubber tire is technically one single,
giant, polymerized molecule.
Some
molecules can be very big, but most are still microscopic. Not the vulcanized
tire, though — it’s all one, big, freakin’ molecule! Basically, the vulcanized
tire is all made of large polymers chains that have been crosslinked together
with covalent bonds.
11. Your car’s airbags are packed with salt
sodium azide, which is very toxic.
When
a collision takes place, the car’s sensors trigger an electrical impulse which
in the fraction of a second dramatically raises the temperature of the salts.
These then decompose into harmless nitrogen gas, rapidly expanding the airbag.
12. Famed
chemist Glenn Seaborg was the only person who could write his address in
chemical elements.
He
would write Sg, Lr, Bk, Cf, Am. That’s
Seaborgium (Sg), named after Seaborg himself; Lawrencium (Lr), named
after the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Berkelium (Bk), named after the city of Berkeley,
the home of UC Berkeley; Californium
(Cf), named after the state of California; Americium (Am), named after America.
13. Air
becomes liquid at -190°C.
Commonly,
matter appears in one of the four states: solid, liquid, gas and plasma. The
air we all breathe is gaseous but like any kind of matter, it can change its
state when subjected to certain temperature and pressure. Air is a mixture of
nitrogen, oxygen, and other gases. The gas can be liquefied by compression and
cooling to extremely low temperatures — under normal atmospheric pressure, air
has to be cooled to -200°C and under high pressure (typically 200 atmospheres)
to -141°C to convert into liquid. Liquid air is used commercially for freezing
other substances and especially as an intermediate step in the production of
nitrogen, oxygen, and argon and the other inert gases.
14. Mars is red because of iron oxide.
While
Earth is sometimes referred to a blue appearance, Mars is covered in a lot of
iron oxide — these are the same compounds that give blood and rust their
distinct color. In light of this, it’s no coincidence that Mars, which
occasionally appears as a bright red ‘star’, was named after the Greek god of
war.
15. One inch of rain is equal to 10inches of snow.
When the temperature is around 300F(00 C) , one
inch of liquid precipitation would fall as 10inches of snow, assuming the rainfall is all
snow.
Source: Zmescience.com
I love this so much! Very educative I learnt few new things! Keep it up,Job well-done!
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