24 AUG 2014 by ideonexus
How Metric Measurements Relate
In metric, one millilier of water occupies one cubic centimeter, weighs one gram, and requires one calorie of energy to ehat up by one degree centigrade--which is 1 percent of the difference between its freezing point and its boiling point. An amount of hydrogen weighing the same amount has exactly one mole of atoms in it.
Whereas in the American system, the answer to "How much energy does it take to boil a room-temperature gallon of water?" is "Go fuck yourself," because you can't directly ... 1 
notes
notes09 AUG 2014 by ideonexus
Hydrogen Levels in the Universe
Our Sun is significantly enriched, having formed when the Universe was more than 9 billion years old in the plane of a spiral galaxy, one of the most enriched places in the Universe. Yet, when our Sun formed, it was still made out of — by mass — 71% hydrogen, 27% helium, and about 2% “other” stuff. If we convert that into “number of atoms” and treat the Sun as typical of the Universe, that means, over the first 9.3 billion years of the Universe, the fraction of hydrogen ha... 1 notes
notes29 MAY 2014 by ideonexus
Twinkle, twinkle little star
Twinkle, twinkle little star.
I don't wonder what you are,
For by spectroscopic ken
I know that you are hydrogen. 1 
notes
notesverse by Lewis Fry Richardson or Ian D. Bush
19 DEC 2013 by ideonexus
If a Scientist Wrote the Book of Genesis
In the beginning was the singularity, and the singularity was infinitely dense and infinitely hot, And the singularity expanded and the singularity cooled and there was chaos, And of the primeval atom was born the Universe. And the Universe was matter and antimatter, and baryogenesis was violated and matter annihilated antimatter until only matter remained, And matter resolved into hydrogen, and after hydrogen came helium and deuterium and all elements, And with elements came mass and with ma...Opening chapter of genesis written in science.
08 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Youth and Chemistry
It is only those who know a little of nature, who fancy they know much. I have heard a young man say, after hearing a few popular chemical lectures, and seeing a few bottle and squirt experiments: Oh, water—water is only oxygen and hydrogen!—as if he knew all about it. While the true chemist would smile sadly enough at the the youth's hasty conceit, and say in his heart: 'Well, he is a lucky fellow.' 1 notes
notesSample of how a little knowledge promotes unwarranted certainty.
16 MAY 2012 by ideonexus
Why Do Supernatural Acts Require Mood-Setting Rituals?
If any spiritualistic medium can do stunts, there is no more need for special conditions than there is for a chemist to turn down lights, start operations with a hymn, and ask whether there's any chemical present that has affinity with something named Hydrogen. Folksonomies: skepticism supernatural
Folksonomies: skepticism supernatural
1 notes
notesChemists don't need to turn down the lights. Physicists don't need to chant.
22 MAR 2012 by ideonexus
1420 megahertz
In the Next Generation episode “Galaxy's Child,” the Enterprise stumbles upon an alien life-form that lives in empty space, feeding on energy. Particularly tasty is radiation with a very specific frequency 1420 million cycles per second, having a wavelength of 21 cm.
In the spirit of Pythagoras, if there were a Music of the Spheres, surely this would be its opening tone. Fourteen hundred and twenty megahertz is the natural frequency of precession of the spin of an electron as it encircle... 1 notes
notesThe natural frequency of precession of the spin of an electron as it encircles the atomic nucleus of hydrogen, it is the tone of the universe.
21 MAR 2012 by ideonexus
Indestructible Atoms
Chemical analysis and synthesis go no farther than to the separation of particles one from another, and to their reunion. No new creation or destruction of matter is within the reach of chemical agency. We might as well attempt to introduce a new planet into the solar system, or to annihilate one already in existence, as to create or destroy a particle of hydrogen. 1 notes
notesTo destroy an atom of Hydrogen would be like trying to introduce a new planet to the solar system.
30 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
The Illusion of Taste
When carbon (C), Oxygen (o) and hydrogen (H) atoms bond in a certain way to form sugar, the resulting compound has a sweet taste. The sweetness resides neither in the C, nor in the O, nor in the H; it resides in the pattern that emerges from their interaction. It is an emergent property. Moreover, strictly speaking, is not a property of the chemical bonds. It is a sensory experience that arises when the sugar molecules interact with the chemistry of our taste buds, which in turns causes a set... 1 notes
notesWhen we taste sweetness, our tongues are not responding to the C, O, or H, but to the molecule.
01 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Big History as a Fable
Once upon a time, about ten or fifteen billion years ago, the universe was
without form. There were no galaxies. There were no stars. There were no
planets. And there was no life. Darkness was upon the face of the deep. The
universe was hydrogen and helium. The explosion of the Big Bang had passed, and
the fires of that titanic event – either the creation of the universe or the ashes of a
previous incarnation of the universe – were rumbling feebly down the corridors of
space.
But the gas...Folksonomies: wonder big history
Folksonomies: wonder big history
1 Carl Sagan tells the story of our Universe's history as a fairy tale.
