Greetings fellow nerds.
So it's time for the january 2016 Question and answer video.
Once again we have some new big sponsors.
They are:
JC founder of Gospik Wesley Gardner
LVE
Thank you very much for your contributions.
Now JC founder of Gospik made a $100 per video contribution so I asked what kind of video
they wanted me to produce.
They said they wanted me to use and review their browser extension.
Okay so let me do that know.
I've already installed the extension and i've included a link in the video description.
Let me log into my google account here.
(uuhmmm)
Okay, the company promotes the Gospik extension as a socialized google search extension.
If you enter a query into google search, in this case Donald Trump,
the extension inserts a message board onto the search page.
Here you can enter whatever you like for other Gospik users making that search query to see.
So here on Donald Trump's search page i can comment that i don't like his climate science.
Think of this as a version of youtube comments but for google search terms.
Hmm, let me type in my channel.
And there is no one commenting on it.
I suppose that makes sense since this browser extension is relatively unknown.
I might as well write something for myself.
And that is basically the Gospik extension.
I've included links in the video description if you want to try it out.
Similar to youtube comments i can see this facilitating some intelligent conversation,
and a great deal more not-so-intelligent conversation.
But hey that's half the fun of the internet.
Okay so moving on.
I have one other corporate sponsor i want to talk about, Popchest.
I'm actually working with them to release a video or two on their video sharing platform.
Don't worry i'm not abandoning youtube.
I just want to experiment a bit.
Popchest let's you pay for videos similar to patreon, youtube fan funding or youtube
red.
Now an annoying thing about the existing systems is that a significant portion of the donations
are chewed up in processing fees by paypal,
the banks transfers, the credit card companies and the video platform itself.
I want to try Popchest because they get around that by using bitcoin.
Now there are some fees with converting bitcoin but overall i think it would be cheaper.
Of course the only way to find out is to try it.
An advantage for you my viewers is that you are in total control of your bitcoins and
decide exactly where they go and how much.
I know some of you prefer that higher level of control rather than let patreon pull money
out of your paypal account which in turn pulls it out of your credit card or bank.
So those of you that want to donate but don't like or maybe even just can't use paypal with
patreon, you can help me out using bitcoin instead on your own terms.
Anyway, i'm still working out the details with Popchest and hope to get back to you
guys soon.
I'll probably release a video on their in february or something.
But in the meantime, if you don't already have bitcoin, or don't even know what it is,
i've included a link in the video description to coinbase where you can learn about bitcoins
and even buy them.
Although you don't need to buy bitcoins from them specifically.
You can use other wallets and exchanges if you want.
But it's still a great site to learn about bitcoins.
Okay let's get to the questions.
Now questions are submitted on my patreon feed.
Those individuals that donate 10$ get their questions answered to the best of my ability
guaranteed.
And I usually answer the questions of those who donate lesser amounts although I may drop
some to save time.
Anyway, first question.
Martel DuVigneaud asks:
I've been reading a bit about ethanethiol because of a recent gas leak near where I
live.
I'm wondering: is sulfur is the main reason why we smell many thiols very strongly?
Yes.
Thiols and a lot of organic sulfur compounds like sulfides and disulfides have very strong
repulsive smells to them.
We've evolved to be very sensitive to them because you usually encounter such compounds
in nature from decaying organic matter.
Dead things are a source of harmful pathogens as well as poisons and shouldn't be eaten
or handled so evolving a repulsive response to them was beneficial to our ancestors.
Processed natural gas actually doesn't have a smell,
and in the past there were some tragic accidents with many lives lost when a gas leak went
undetected for too long
and eventually found an ignition source and exploded.
So companies inject tiny amounts of thiols or organic sulfides into natural gas to give
them a smell.
sulfur are selected since the great majority of people can smell them.
And due to our evolution, we can detect them in extremely small quantities so you don't
much of them to get the desired effect.
Keith Dental amalgam and stainless steel cookware
contain mercury and nickel respectively.
What are the chemical mechanisms making alloys safer than pure forms?
For the case of mercury, it's just the alloying itself that makes it safer.
In dental amalgam, the mercury bonds with the silver, tin and copper.
Because the mercury is bonded with them it now requires much greater energy to vaporize
into mercury vapor.
So there is very little toxic mercury vapor to worry about.
Another property of the amalgam is that it's very corrosion resistant so in the environment
of a person's mouth it doesn't rust and release ions.
The oxidation potential required to do that is higher than what a person's mouth can provide.
Overall the amount of mercury is very little.
That being said, there is a movement toward avoiding mercury in dental fillings since
mercury is still an environmental hazard and some people,
particularly younger individuals, may be more sensitive to mercury than others.
As for nickel in stainless steel, the protection mechanism is a bit different.
Stainless steel has a significant quantity of chromium in the alloy.
Usually between 10% and 26%.
Now the iron in the steel corrodes and so does the chromium,
but when chromium corrodes it forms a thin but very tough layer of chromium oxide.
This is very different from the weak and porous iron oxide that forms on iron.
The chromium oxide blocks further attack to the metal.
Even if it gets scratched the layer reforms from the chromium underneath.
If the stainless steel can't corrode and come apart, the nickel inside of it can't either.
Now tiny detectable amounts of metals do leach out of stainless steel cookware, but the amount
is considered insignificant to human health.
Next question, jason black asks:
You know that thing where lithium reacts with anhydrous liquid ammonia to generate those
really pretty solvated electrons?
Is it possible to drain those electrons off as a power source?
Technically yes, you can drain them off if you simultaneously insert negative ions to
compensate for the charge loss.
But any energy you would get from them would not be any greater than what you would get
from a normal lithium battery.
The electrical potential energy in those electrons originally came from the lithium metal.
Lithium batteries already efficiently extract electrical energy from lithium metal or lithium
compounds.
That being said, chemists do use solvated electrons for reactions like the birch reduction.
It's very convenient in some cases to have a high energy reductant in liquid form.
So in a way we are using it as an energy source, we just use it as is and don't bother draining
off the electrons.
Pablo Soares Why did you end up working with inorganic
chemistry?
What is something about organic chemistry that you don't like working with?
Can you explain why does this divide exists among chemists?
You know, this is a good question.
Unfortunately i have a very stupid answer,
I went into inorganic chemistry because when i was picking supervisors for my Ph.D.
all the organic chemistry professors at my university weren't taking anymore students.
I'm sorry that's the truth.
There is actually nothing wrong with organic chemistry
and keep in mind that all chemists know a little bit about every other chemistry even
if we don't specialize in it.
There is no divide really in chemistry.
But a specialized chemist will usually solve a problem in their field a lot faster,
more efficiently and a lot cheaper than a chemist for which that problem is outside
their field.
So i could probably go work in an organic chemistry lab,
just that the time it would take me to do the same tasks would not be cost effective
as a chemist with an actual organic chemistry Ph.D.
Personally i find all chemistry to be a very rewarding and interesting experience.
Matthew Saks
Can you describe how to make elemental sodium?
Sure.
I know of three ways.
The first is to mix together sodium hydroxide and magnesium metal and ignite them.
This process is almost like a thermite process and transfers oxygen from the sodium hydroxide
to the magnesium to make magnesium oxide, hydrogen gas, and sodium metal.
The problem with this method is that a lot of the sodium is embedded in the resulting
mass of magnesium oxide ash.
Nighthawkinglight has a good video on this process and i'll link it in the video description.
The second way is Castner cell electrolysis where you melt sodium hydroxide and electrolyze
it.
The anode generates oxygen, while the cathode generates sodium and hydrogen.
The difficulty of this method is that the temperature must be kept very close to the
melting point of sodium hydroxide
but not over too much or else the sodium produced would dissolve into the sodium hydroxide and
form a metalloid.
This metalloid is conductive and shorts out the cell, stopping further sodium formation.
This method is also very dangerous as molten sodium hydroxide liquefies human flesh quite
rapidly
and the molten melt has tendency to pop and bubble as you electrolyze it.
You also can't use glass containers since the molten sodium hydroxide eats through glass
as well.
The third way is the classic Downs cell process.
You melt a low melting eutectic of sodium and calcium chloride and electrolyze that.
Sodium comes off the cathode and chlorine off the anode.
Because you're melting a salt rather than a caustic alkali it's a little bit easier
on the container materials and you don't need as fine temperature control.
The downside is that you require even higher temperatures with their associated dangers.
So all that's all the questions for this month.
If you want to ask a question, please submit it to my patreon feed.
Anyone who donates more than $10 will get their questions answered guaranteed.
Less than that and I may answer your question if i have time.