I just wrapped up week 3 of my summer chemistry
class. I’m still up in Northern California and I must admit it’s been one of
the less-relaxing vacations I’ve had so far. I spend most of my afternoons doing
the readings or homework or assignments… I never feel like I’m truly done. It’s
too bad because the weather cleared up and it’s been nice and warm, but I
almost feel guilty spending time outside doing fun things. In the back of my
head I’m always thinking “There’s that discussion board I need to remember to
post on, and there’s that homework objective I need to finish, and oh yeah I
need to review for the exam, but I can’t do that tomorrow because we’ll be gone
so I need to try to squeeze that in today, and…” But in the grand scheme of
things this class is more important to my future than this vacation, so I just
need to deal with it!
Beautiful, isn't it? So happy the sun decided to come out!
Speaking of trying to get things done, I’ve noticed
that I’m having a hard time trying to balance all the requirements for this
class. I feel like there’s a lot of “busy work,” which is usually fun work, but
I’m concentrating so much on getting those assignments in that I have a hard
time fitting in the actual textbook reading. I also feel like I haven’t been
able to actually study the material… a lot of it sinks in through the homework,
but I’m having a hard time staying one step ahead that way.
Well, on to what I did for the class this week. I
read chapters 10, and 17 in the textbook (on “Chemical Bonding” and “Radioactivity
and Nuclear Chemistry,” respectively). I remember most of the material that was
covered this week; it helps that I’ve always enjoyed working with chemical
formulas and things like half-life. In thinking over how these readings relate
to my dental hygiene major, I have to admit nothing from chapter 10 jumped out at
me, other than the mention of “How Soap Works” on 343. One of the most
fundamental rules in a medical field: wash wash and wash your hands. I’m sure
there’s more there that I will pick up on once I start my dental hygiene
studies, but for now there was nothing obvious. On the other hand, I did see
how chapter 17 related to dental hygiene. I volunteered in
a dental office for a couple of months earlier this year and learned how to
develop the x rays. A dental hygienist is responsible for
taking x rays, which are a form of electromagnetic radiation.
I also thought the section on the Shroud of Turin on
page 632 was interesting. I recently watched a fascinating BBC special that
examined new evidence supporting the claim that it is the burial cloth of Jesus
Christ. The carbon-14 dating is still an obstacle, but looking at the
historical and medical aspects of the shroud definitely throws some doubt on it
being a medieval forgery. Here’s the special in case anyone is interested in
watching it. If you’re interested in history, religion and/or chemistry it is
definitely worth the watch.
In “Uncle Tungsten” I read chapters 8, 20 and 23. I
had to laugh reading chapter 8 (“Stinks and Bangs”) because we took a day trip
up to Lassen National Park on Thursday, and there is a section along the road
through the park that has some sulfur springs. There is definitely a strong “rotten
egg” smell right along that section, and my 12-year-old brother always pulls
his shirt over his face and begs our dad to “Go faster, get me out of here!”
Unfortunately the speed limit at that stretch of the road is 15 mph, so he
suffers for awhile. The college I graduated from a few years ago is also
located right by some sulfur springs; we couldn’t smell them from campus but
you sure could as you approached the entrance from the road. We all called it “the
smell of knowledge.” Chapter 20 (“Penetrating Rays”) fit right in with the use
of x rays in dental hygiene. It was fascinating reading Sacks’ description of
the history of the x ray, and I got a giggle out of the prim Victorians’ horrified
reaction to the… lack of privacy… they anticipated from x rays. In some ways it
reminded me of the current controversy over full-body image scans at airports. Chapter
23, “The World Set Free,” focused on radioactivity, half life and radiation.
The most interesting part of the chapter to me was when he said on page 284
that “The earth was still living, in terms of atomic energy, on the uranium and
thorium that had been present when the earth was formed.” I had never thought
about radioactive elements helping keep the earth warm, nor had I thought about
how radioactive elements can be traced back to those original two.
The videos this week were very helpful. “Electronegativity
& Polarity” covered a topic that can easily get confusing for me, but it
broke it down and made it clearer. The videos on “Alpha Decay,” “Beta Decay,” “Positron
Emission,” “Decay Series,” and “Half Life” all made the math involved in
solving the problems look easy and I understood everything without a problem.
Moving on to experiments! Looking back over the last
several weeks, I have to say my favorite one has probably been the layering
liquids experiment. I loved seeing how the different colors floated on top of
each other. It illustrated the concept of density clearly and in a fun way. I
thought the section with the sugar water was especially illuminating. In the
other section I took totally different liquids… soap, oil, water, etc., and
layered them. It’s clear that they have different densities, but if you didn’t
think too much about it you could just say “Well, they’re different substances
with different ingredients. Maybe that’s why one floats on the other.” On the
other hand, the only difference between the sugar water samples was the number
of sugar particles in each, so density was the immediate explanation for the
results. As a side note, a close second for the experiments would have to be
the experiments involving Skittles and M&Ms, for purely selfish reasons,
unfortunately.
I did my oral presentation this week! The experiment
itself was pretty easy and straightforward, though I believe I overthought the
question about relating the different particles to the different colored blocks.
I took a break and after I allowed my head to clear out a bit I understood it
better. Assembling the film was a bit of a production. I hadn’t anticipated
that our family would be taking our annual boat ride on the lake on Saturday, and
I hadn’t been able to start the presentation before. The whole time I was on
the boat I was thinking “I gotta work on that video… I gotta work on that video…
oh yeah, I have to do that video.” So when I got back to the cabin I rushed to
the computer, still in my swimsuit and feeling nasty from the sunscreen and
started work on the video. Initially I was really stumped because there wasn’t
much “exciting” to show for the camera… you can only show yourself shaking a
bag of M&Ms and counting print-side-up candies so many times before it gets
monotonous. I stressed for about an hour without making any progress, retrieved
the leftover M&Ms to console myself, and eventually worked out a format
that *hopefully* wouldn’t bore the audience to tears. Once I got it uploaded to
Youtube (my first ever video on Youtube!) and watched it all at once I was
pretty happy with it. Here it is!
Lab 4 was interesting because it was a lab sheet and
not a report. I thought that meant it was going to be a cinch… oh boy was I
wrong. I was still having a hard time with the concept of molecular geometry at
that point so initially I was spending way too much time cross checking and
second guessing myself. It took me several hours just to make the gumdrop structures,
and then when I went back and looked at them I realized several of them were
wrong, so I had to go back and redo them. I then spent another couple of hours
filling out the rest of the sheet. I think I got the hang of it by the end of
the experiment, but I was very relieved to see that experiment 5 involved
nothing more complicated than shaking bags of M&Ms and wooden blocks!
Well, so ends week 3 of chemistry. I have a feeling
the next couple of days are going to be super stressful; we go back home
Tuesday so I need to have everything that’s due that day done by tomorrow. I’m
not looking forward to cramming for an exam and packing on the same day. Oh
well, hopefully once I’m home I can get more of a routine going! Until next
week!
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