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Daynotes
Journal
Week of 24 September 2007
Latest
Update: Saturday, 29 September 2007
07:55 -0400 |
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Monday, 24 September
2007
08:35
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Busy weekend. Paul and I spent Saturday morning at Costco, laying
in food, drinks, and other supplies for Mary's official welcome-home
party. We hauled off two heaping shopping carts' worth that nearly
filled the back of his SUV. It took us ten minutes to haul the stuff
out of his SUV and store the cold stuff in their garage refrigerator.
It was pretty empty when we started and packed full when we finished.
Then it was off home for me, to work some more on a chapter for the
chem lab book.
Barbara arrived home late Saturday evening to
much joyous barking and wagging of tails. Sunday morning, Barbara
cleaned house while I did large piles of laundry. Around lunchtime, we
headed over to the city park that Paul had rented for Mary's party.
Around 50 people showed up, and everyone had a good time. Paul and Mary
had a couple of notebooks set up doing slideshows of Mary's pictures on
LCD displays. There were a lot of fascinating images that I hadn't seen
before. I tried to talk Mary into setting up her own website so
that other people can see them.
Mary told lots of stories about
the run, including the real story about something that should have
received a great deal more comment than it did. There were several
world-class runners participating in the Blue Planet Run. One of them,
Emmanuel Kibet from Kenya, routinely ran his 10-mile leg in about an
hour, considerably faster than the 90 minutes that were budgeted for
each 10-mile leg. Knowing that 60 minutes was a very fast time for a
10-mile run, I was surprised when I read the BPR update one day and
learned that Scottish runner Paul Rogan had completed his leg in 47
minutes.
I asked Mary how it was possible for a human to run 10
miles in 47 minutes, and asked if even Emmanuel could do that. She said
that Emmanuel might, if the conditions were perfect and everything came
together just right, run a 10-mile leg in 50 minutes or so, but she
doubted even he could do a 47-minute leg. Paul Rogan, Mary said, is
extremely sarcastic and funny. What happened was he and his pilot van
got lost, and he ended up running 2 miles in the wrong direction.
Instead of driving him back to where he should have been and letting
him restart from there, the pilot van had him run back to where he
should have been, so he ended up running 14 miles on that leg. He'd
turned off his watch, as apparently had the pilot van, so at the end of
it no one had an accurate time for his run. Someone asked him how long
he'd taken to do that leg, and he replied in jest that he'd done it in
47 minutes. Someone took him seriously, and his 47-minute run was
memorialized for all time on the BPR page.
Mary also talked more
about how bad things had gotten while they were in China. At one point,
half or more of the runners and staff, including the team physician,
were down with severe food poisoning. As an indication of how bad
things got, Mary had been down with food poisoning for 36 hours,
throwing up every half hour on the half hour. The BPR staff came to her
and asked how she was feeling. She allowed that she was feeling a bit
better than she had been. Can you stand up, they asked? Yes, she told
them, she felt sure that she could stand up. Can you walk, they asked
her? Maybe, she said, although she wasn't entirely sure about that. So,
they asked her, can you run a shift? Apparently, as weak and ill as she
was, Mary was still in the best shape of all the sick runners. So she
answered the call and went out to run. When the going got tough, the
tough got going, indeed.
Tuesday, 25 September 2007
08:28
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I had an exchange of emails yesterday with Brian Jepson, my primary
editor at O'Reilly. I thought I'd post them to give my readers a
behind-the-scenes glance at some of what goes on during the process of
writing a book.
From: Brian Jepson
To: Robert Thompson
Date: Mon Sep 24 11:53:39 2007
Re: Sales+Marketing folks need Home Chemistry info
Bob,
Could
you send me your current outline today? Whatever you have will be fine
as-is; I just want to show the sales and marketing folks the topics
that you will cover.
From: Robert Bruce Thompson
To: Brian Jepson
Date: Mon Sep 24 12:01:58 2007
Re: Sales+Marketing folks need Home Chemistry info
Let
me clean it up a bit and I'll get a copy to you shortly. I'm still in
juggling mode as to what I'll be able to include and what I'll have to
leave out for space reasons, so let them know that this outline is
subject to change. Would it be better to include only stuff that I know
for sure is going to be in there? They can always say "and more", but I
guess we don't want to mention something that might end up on the
cutting room floor, right?
From: Brian Jepson
To: Robert Bruce Thompson
Date: Mon Sep 24 12:18:23 2007
Re: Re: Sales+Marketing folks need Home Chemistry info
That's
right--it's better to only include stuff that's definitely in, so that
we don't end up with incorrect descriptions on Amazon, etc.
From: Robert Bruce Thompson
To: Brian Jepson
Date: Mon Sep 24 12:38:25 2007
Re: Re: Sales+Marketing folks need Home Chemistry info
Okay, here's the current outline.
All
of the lab chapters in this outline are either complete or in progress.
I will probably add at least one or two additional lab chapters, as
well as possibly adding additional lab sessions to the current chapters.
What do you think of where I am so far?
Home Chemistry Lab Handbook
Preliminary Outline
0. Preface
1. Introduction
2. Laboratory Safety
3. Equipping a Home Chemistry Lab
4. Chemicals for the Home Chemistry Lab
5. Mastering Laboratory Skills
6. Laboratory: Separating Mixtures
Introduction
Differential Solubility: Separate Sugar and Sand
Distillation: Purify Ethanol
Recrystallization: Purify Copper Sulfate
Solvent Extraction
Chromatography: Two-Phase Separation of Mixtures
Determine the Formula of a Hydrate
7. Laboratory: Solubility and Solutions
Introduction
Make Up a Molar Solution of a Solid Chemical
Make Up a Molal Solution of a Solid Chemical
Make Up a Molar Solution of a Liquid Chemical
Make Up a Mass-to-Volume Percentage Solution
Determine Concentration of a Solution by Visual Colorimetry
8. Laboratory: Colligative Properties of Solutions
Introduction
Determine Molar Mass by Boiling Point Elevation
Determine Molar Mass by Freezing Point Depression
Observe the Effects of Osmotic Pressure
9. Laboratory: Introduction to Chemical Reactions & Stoichiometry
Introduction
Observe a Composition Reaction
Observe a Decomposition Reaction
Observe a Single-Displacement Reaction
Stoichiometry of a Double Displacement Reaction
10. Laboratory: Reduction-Oxidation (Redox) Reactions
Introduction
Reduction of Copper Ore to Copper Metal
Observe the Oxidation States of Manganese
11. Laboratory: Acid-Base Chemistry
Introduction
Determine the Effect of Concentration on pH
Determine the pH of Aqueous Salt Solutions
Observe the Characteristics of a Buffer Solution
Standardize a Hydrochloric Acid Solution by Titration
12. Laboratory: Chemical Kinetics
Introduction
Determine the Effect of Temperature on Reaction Rate
Determine the Effect of Surface Area on Reaction Rate
Determine the Effect of Concentration on Reaction Rate
13. Laboratory: Chemical Equilibrium and Le Chatelier's Principle
Introduction
Observe Le Chatlier's Principle in Action
Quantify the Common Ion Effect
14. Laboratory: Gas Chemistry
Introduction
Observe the Volume-Pressure Relationship of Gases (Boyle's Law)
Observe the Volume-Temperature Relationship of Gases (Charles's Law)
Observe the Pressure-Temperature Relationship of Gases (Gay-Lussac's Law)
Use the Ideal Gas Law to Determine the Percentage of Acetic Acid in Vinegar
15. Laboratory: Thermochemistry and Calorimetry
Introduction
Determine Heat of Solution
Determine the Specific Heat of Ice
Determine the Specific Heat of a Metal
Determine the Enthalpy Change of a Reaction
16. Laboratory: Electrochemistry
Introduction
Produce Hydrogen and Oxygen by Electrolysis of Water
Observe the Electrochemical Oxidation of Iron
Measure Electrode Potentials
Observe Energy Transformation
Build a Voltaic Cell
Build a Battery
17. Laboratory: Photochemistry
Introduction
Photochemical Reaction of Iodine and Oxalate
18. Laboratory: Chemistry of Colloids
Introduction
Prepare a Colloid and Observe Its Properties
19. Laboratory: Forensic Chemistry
Introduction
Use the Sherlock Holmes Test to Detect Blood
Perform a Presumptive Test for Illicit Drugs
Reveal Latent Fingerprints
Use the Marsh Test to Detect Arsenic or Antimony
From: Brian Jepson
To: Robert Bruce Thompson
Date: Mon Sep 24 15:05:19 2007
Re: Re: Sales+Marketing folks need Home Chemistry info
It's
awesome. I'm torn between its sheer awesomeness and my lack of time to
try it all out right now. It all looks seriously cool. I've looked
through some of the chapters, and it seems to be in really good shape.
The lab equipment and chemical chapters make me want to spend money.
From: Robert Bruce Thompson
To: Brian Jepson
Date: Mon Sep 24 15:17:29 2007
Re: Re: Sales+Marketing folks need Home Chemistry info
Don't
spend any money yet. I need to do another pass through the equipment
and chemical chapters after I finish all the lab chapters. I'm going to
do a spreadsheet that has equipment and chemicals down the left column
and lab # across the top row. Then I'll figure out exactly which
equipment and chemicals are actually needed for this book, and trim
those chapters down to match. The spreadsheet data will actually be
incorporated into the intro chapter, so that if there are any pieces of
equipment and/or chemicals that are needed in only one or a few labs,
people who want to economize can do so by not buying those
seldom-needed supplies and just skipping the lab or labs in question.
Wednesday, 26 September 2007
08:55
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Duncan took another hard fall yesterday. We were standing talking to
Kim in her yard when Duncan spotted two dogs he doesn't like being
walked by their humans. Duncan went into his berserker mode, barking
ferociously and whipping around on the end of his leash. Unfortunately,
his back end isn't up to that any more, and it gave out on him. He went
down and wasn't able to get up.
I let him rest for a few
minutes, and then lifted his back end up for him. He went down again
immediately. I was going to carry him home, but he really dislikes
being picked up, so I helped him home by using his tail as a handle to
take some of the weight off his hips. We got home, and he was unable to
stand at all. This was about 2:30 in the afternoon, and he still wasn't
able to stand by the time Barbara got home three hours later.
Barbara
was afraid we'd need to have him put down, but I told her this was
exactly what had happened a few weeks ago, and he recovered from that
very well. I think he basically sprained his butt. Fortunately, I was
right. This morning, Duncan is getting around pretty well. A bit stiff,
but he's able to get up and walk around. Another day or two of taking
it easy should see him back to normal.
I am going to stop
walking him on the street, at least for the next several days. There's
always the danger of a delivery truck or something else that drives
Duncan berserk appearing with little warning, and we can't take
that chance. So instead of walking him on the street, I'll just walk
him down in the back yard.
Work continues on the home chem lab book. I almost added another lab session, but I thought better of it.
18. Laboratory: Chemistry of Colloids
Introduction
Prepare a Colloid and Observe Its Properties
Prepare an Organogel
The
organogel in question is prepared by adding sufficient polystyrene
packing peanuts to gasoline to produce a syrup-like gel. That gel
actually has a common name. It's called napalm-B or Super Napalm. Well,
technically, napalm-B also includes a small percentage of benzene, but
in practical terms there's no difference.
I was also going to
suggest storing the product in a wine bottle to which a couple
centimeters of concentrated sulfuric acid had been added, and wrapping
the bottle in paper that had been soaked in a saturated solution of
potassium chlorate. Of course, that would be a self-igniting Molotov
cocktail, so prudence suggests not including that lab session in the
book.
Thursday, 27 September
2007
07:42
-
I figured you folks might want to see how much fun I'm having with this
home chem lab book, so here's an image I just shot for the gas
chemistry chapter. That's a 600 mL beaker mostly full of 95% denatured
ethanol, with a big chunk of dry ice in it. Actually, it was a much
bigger chunk when it started, but much of it has eroded in the process
of lowering the temperature of the alcohol, which was -59 °C when
I shot this image.
The black box to the left is an electronic
thermometer. The big black thing in the beaker is the probe. The yellow
thing in the beaker is a disposable syringe with the tip capped (you
can just see the yellow tip cap to the extreme right edge of the
beaker). The object on the right is a pair of tongs, because it's a
really, really bad idea to use your bare hands when working with dry ice. Talk
about instant frostbite.
If
you have sharp eyes, you may have noticed that the plunger of the
syringe is down near the tip. Charle's Law says that as the temperature
in the beaker decreases, the volume of the gas contained in the syringe
also decreases. The volume of a gas is proportional to the
absolute temperature in kelvins, so if a given amount of gas occupies
volume X at 273 K (about 0 °C), it occupies about a third (100/273)
more at 373 K and about a third less at 173 K. In a home lab, a
reasonable range of temperatures for this test ranges from about 100 °C
(boiling water) at the high end to as low as I could get it with dry
ice, which was -59 °C.
I could have used a higher-boiling
liquid, like vegetable or motor oil, but I was afraid I'd melt or
distort the plastic syringe. And I suppose I could have gotten lower by
taking extraordinary measures, but -59 °C serves to illustrate the
principle, and getting much lower would have increased the danger and
cost greatly.
If you're wondering why the plunger is so far
down, well, that's a good question. I originally planned to have the
plunger as far up as possible to increase the initial volume and
thereby increase the accuracy of the measurement of the volume
decrease. I can get to within about 0.05 mL using the gradations on the
syringe, so it would obviously have been better to start with a volume
of gas as close as possible to the full 10.00 mL capacity of the
syringe.
The problem was that the damned thing floats.
Depressing the plunger to start with an initial volume of only a couple
of mL allowed me to let the top portion of the syringe fill with
ethanol, which weighted the syringe down just enough to keep the gas-filled
portion submerged. There's a huge temperature difference between just
below the surface of the ethanol and just above it, so I wanted to make
sure that the gas-filled portion was completely submerged. That meant
starting with a smaller baseline volume, but there's so much slop in
this procedure that it really didn't have a great impact on the
accuracy of the results, which were surprisingly good.
Still,
I'm thinking about repeating the experiment using some sort of weight
to keep the tip of the syringe under the liquid. I may do that if I
have time.
Friday, 28 September
2007
08:23
-
I finished the electrochemistry chapter yesterday. The final two
laboratory chapters, gas chemistry and colloid chemistry, are in
progress and should be complete in the next few days.
Once the
lab chapters are complete, I'll return to working on the initial
narrative chapters. Two of the three major narrative
chapters, Equipping a Home Chemistry Lab and Chemicals for
the Home Chemistry Lab, are complete in first-draft form. I'll go back
and rewrite those based on the actual equipment and chemicals needed to
complete all of the sessions in the lab chapters, removing stuff that's
in there now but isn't needed and adding stuff I forgot to include.
I'll build a spreadsheet, with lab sessions across the top and
equipment/chemical items down the left side. That leaves the third
major narrative chapter, Mastering Laboratory Skills, which is
partially complete, as well as two minor narrative chapters,
Introduction and Laboratory Safety, both of which are also partially
complete.
Once I finish those, I'll step back, take a deep
breath, and see where I stand in terms of time and page count. If I
have time and page count remaining, I'll look at adding some of the lab
chapters I wanted to include but didn't, as well as additional lab
sessions within the current lab chapters. I'll prioritize those, write
however many I have time and page count for, and declare the book done.
One way or the other, that should happen by the end of October. Then
it'll be on to the next book.
Saturday, 29 September
2007
07:55
- I didn't know until now how easy the U.S. citizenship test is.
Disgustingly easy. No test at all, really. The article gives examples
of the "hard" questions, namely, "What is the rule of law?" and
"Who was the president during World War I?". Only ten questions are
asked, and a passing grade requires answering only six of those
correctly. And even then, there's apparently considerable discretion
given to graders to accept partial answers as correct. As an indication
of just how easy this test is, the lowest success rate is among central
Americans, at 85.1% successful. Several groups have 100% success
rates. What kind of test is it that nearly everyone passes? We
should be aiming for something more like a 5% pass rate, if not 1%. We
only want the smart ones.
The test should have
at least 100 questions selected
randomly from a pool of 5,000 or more. An "easy" question should be
something like "What rights are guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment?",
or "Which representatives and senators were the principle supporters and opponents of the Fugitive
Slave Act?" or "In what famous trial did William Jennings Bryan and
Clarence Darrow appear for the prosecution and defense, respectively?",
or "What was the primary casus belli of the War of 1812?". And most of
the questions should not be easy. A passing score of 60% is absurd. At least a 90% score should be required to pass.
And
to anyone who claims that most native-born American citizens could not
answer these questions correctly, my response is "so what?" Those
people have been out of school for some time. Prospective citizens have
no doubt been cramming right up to the time they take the test.
Sunday, 30 September
2007
00:00
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Copyright
© 1998,
1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 by Robert Bruce
Thompson. All
Rights Reserved.
