Chemistry, but in English

[harp]

For now, my biggest concerns are:

Business Law Final
Anatomy Mock-Final / Embalming Final
Small Business Final

The way it's set up, even with grosser than gross law grades, a decent-ish grade on the final will solve the problem completely and forever. The students are huddling together out of a common dislike for the teacher (most of them; I can't seem to find it in me to dislike him) and everyone's helping everyone.

Of course, I'm all worried-like. To think that one failed class will get you kicked out of the school. No exaggeration, people; that's how it goes. I'll know everything by April 9th.

Wicked as it is, sometimes the only thing that helps is knowing that there are other people in the class that wish they only had one "all or nothing" final.


Warning: Even if this seems glib and humorous, I am 100% serious in my questioning

I do not get this business of "balancing equations". Putting Al + O2 -> Al2O3 on the board and asking "solve this problem". Not to be a smartmouth, but they never explain exactly why this is a problem. The equation's not balanced. Alright, but isn't that because someone wrote it unbalanced? I never understood why it was a problem. Seems like the chemicals would sort themselves out because that was just how chemicals worked.

It'd be another thing if we were told "so when you see this problem, you have to solve it because you have to go to your chemistry spice rack and know exactly how many aluminums to add". I'm not trying to make a joke- I really do not understand this.

The solution to that "problem" by the way, is 4Al + 3O2 -> 2AL2O3. Where the eff did those extra aluminums come from? Is it just going to manifest magically? Are they going to be pulled in from somewhere in the surrounding area? Without an explanation, this stuff makes about as much sense as Sideways Arithmetic from Wayside School (before the spoilers). Or is it more of a "find the mystery number" sort of a problem? I have no idea, but if I get good news by April 9th, the first thing I'm doing is prepping for this ugliness.

Comments

[barsukthom.livejournal.com]

Jeez.
Chem was...
okay. You know how Vlad feels when he's talking to those damn kids about the "good old days"?
Yeah.
Chem was 31 years ago.

[heron-advocate.livejournal.com]

The object is to have the same number of atoms on one side of the equation as is on the other side. On the left is one atom of Al and two of O. On the right is two of Al and three of O. Just at a glance, the O has to be at six because it's the first digit at which 2 and 3 meet. That is, one O2 (two O) doesn't balance with one Al2O3 (three O). Two O2 (4 O) doesn't balance with either 1 Al2O3 (3 O) or 2 Al2O3 (6 O). 3 O2 (6 O) has the same number of oxygen atoms as 2 Al2O3 (6 O). The aluminum is easy because it's not a diatomic molecule like oxygen (there's only one atom instead of two). So you just need to figure out how man Al goes into 2 Al2O3, and that's 4.

So you should really look at both sides of the equation, figure out how many atoms of each element are on both sides, and work from there.

I hope that helped a little? It's been a while since gen chemistry so I had to look a lot of this up lol.

[harpsi-fizz.livejournal.com]

Yes, but... but what does that look like off of paper? Where is it? In a glass tube? In the atmosphere? That's what boggles me.

[vincent-kinneas.livejournal.com]

It's in whatever you're mixing it in, be it a test tube, a beaker, whatever. Like you mentioned in the main post, the main reason to work out the ratios is to see how much of each ingredient you have to add, relative to each other. Now, here's where I try a really tortured metaphor, so I apologise ahead of time...

Picture it like a dance floor, for one of those group dance-y things like a barn dance or something like that. Or a ceilidh, but I've not got a clue if you'd know what that is, it's a mostly Scottish thing. ^^;;

Point is, for each dance there's a set number of dancers. For a waltz or a tango, it's one male and one female (obviously not a mandatory requirement in real life, but just trying to keep the analogy as basic as possible). For other dances though, it's not just two people involved. For a virginia reel, it's four guys and four girls. And for the Dashing White Sergeant, it's mixed sets; two guys and a girl or two girls and a guy.

Soooooooo, imagine you throw a bunch of people who've never met before into a room; they all know the rules and steps of the aluminium oxide jig, but none of 'em know each other. But turn on the music and they'll all mingle and form up into the right groups; in this case 2 aluminiums to 3 oxygens in each group (or 2 girls to 3 guys if that makes it easier to visualise). They're not all gonna be standing in the right positions right away, so once there's only a few people left they'll need to walk around the dancefloor a lot to find other partners, or a group who only needs one more aluminium to make a full set.

Lastly, the point of the problem is to find out the ratios you need before you start, so you can let the right number of each kind on to the dance floor in the first place. After all, you don't want some poor sods to be left as the odd ones out, do you? So for every two aluminiums you let into the hall in the first place, you let in three oxygens, and then turn on the music and they'll do the rest.

...did that insanely torturous metaphor do any good at all? ^^;;

[harpsi-fizz.livejournal.com]

did that insanely torturous metaphor do any good at all?

When you put it into terms like that, well... yeah, it actually does.

Hold on. Are chemical equations statements of fact? Are they saying 2 + 2 = 4 ? Is it a narrative? That's how I've been looking at it. Which is why it made no sense to me why "2 + 6 = 14, that's incorrect, re-write it to make it correct" was a "problem". 2 and 6 are not 14, and they never will be 14 if you write it out that way, so the only problem there is "you wrote it out wrong, ninny, here let me add (2) in front of that 6 and now it's right".

[vincent-kinneas.livejournal.com]

It's more like the 'find the missing number' problem idea you originally mentioned in the post than a narrative. Like you said, putting the (2) in front of that 6 makes it work, you just need to work out what the number in brackets is in each case. Will give a more thorough answer when I'm not typing oh-so-slowly on my phone.

BTW, if you've got any more chemistry questions, lemme know, it's one subject I'm actually useful at. ;)

[mimi-monsterr.livejournal.com]

this just gave me flashbacks to chemistry lessons I thought I had repressed forever! hehe :)