Unwise chemistry question

[pinhodecarlos]

Originally Posted by Nick

On the subject of unwise chemistry, this occurred last week:
https://www.theguardian.com/educatio...xplosive-scare

My friend who lecture there told me about it.

[chalsall]

Originally Posted by pinhodecarlos

My friend who lecture there told me about it.

If I may please share... I'm already under surveillance, so I have nothing to lose...

As a child I was raised around compressed Oxygen and Acetylene tanks, and many other dangerous things which I played with, including very high voltages and amperages.

It was only later in my education that the thinness of C2H2 molecule made sense to me as to why it leaked so easily.

[chalsall]

Originally Posted by pinhodecarlos

My friend who lecture there told me about it.

So, a PHD student mistaking made that explosive.

Is that your understanding?

[chalsall]

Originally Posted by chalsall

So, a PHD student mistaking made that explosive.

Is that your understanding?

Sorry. Mike (AKA XYXXY) is playing god. It becomes tiring.

[xilman]

Originally Posted by kladner

Wow! Another special quality for tungsten, and one which seems rather unusual, too. Thanks for that bit of stray knowledge!

Actually, I was over-simplifying. Very pure tungsten is ductile at room temperature. Almost all commercially available W contains a small amount of oxygen and it's that which makes the metal brittle when cold. Extracting oxygen from tungsten isn't very easy and so the pure-enough metal is very expensive and not normally required for the great majority of uses.


Moral: never ask a chemist questions about chemistry. You will very likely be told far more than you expected and, probably, wanted.

[chalsall]

Originally Posted by xilman

Moral: never ask a chemist questions about chemistry. You will very likely be told far more than you expected and, probably, wanted.

I disagree. Ask many questions.

Anyone buying lots of tanks should be interesting.

[Xyzzy]

Originally Posted by chalsall

Sorry. Mike (AKA XYXXY) is playing god. It becomes tiring.

[chalsall]

Originally Posted by Xyzzy

Sorry. I was trying to be playful. Probably shouldn't do that.