Chris+G

=__**Christopher G's Honors Chemistry wikipage**__=

Assignment 1: [|TED Talk]:
I chose the TED talk by Anthony Atala on growing new organs. This talk was in a field of science I have always been interested, as the effects of being able to regenerate tissue would not only help millions, it could personally help me to live a better, more physically active life. In addition, areas of regenerative medicine, such as stem cell research, have been incredibly controversial, and therefore I like to follow the issues to see what the government chooses to do about them. Finally, I have always wanted to learn more about this cutting edge field of science. This lecture was incredibly informative, and I learned that scientists are doing many things I didn’t think were possible. First, Mr. Atala described how the use of biomaterials can be used to fix small injuries, as it provides a bridge for cells to grow on. Next, he described how small amounts of tissue can be harvested, and then through a process of separating different tissue components and growing new cells. With this, they are able to produce tissues and organs, such as bladders and blood vessels, and by building structures that support the organs using collagen, they can layer on the different cell types and build more complex organs and tissues, such as livers, heart valves, and even fingers and toes. Finally he described that by using that technique; they were able to build a small, primitive kidney. Although he said that this field will need much more research and hard work, and that process to date has been slow, he finally stated that once a set process for building working tissues and organs is discovered, they can essentially mass produces the organs and tissues people need. In conclusion, I found this talk to be shocking, for I didn’t know that scientists had been able to grow new organs and tissues that worked like that. In addition, after seeing this talk, I have hope that someday not so far in the future, replacing organs and tissues will be easy and transplants will rarely be required. Finally, this talk intrigued me, and I plan to do more research to learn more about organ regeneration.

Gas Law Example Number 1: Unopened Bottle on an Airplane
When I flew several weeks ago, I bought a bottle of water just before boarding. After taking off and reaching cruising altitude, I went to open it, but noticed that it was bulging and about to explode. This is due to the fact that even though the airplane is pressurized, it is pressurized at 8,000 feet above sea level, and thus the air in the plane has fewer molecules, which bounce off the surfaces of its container and everything in it less, resulting in a lower pressure, while the bottle, sealed on the ground, contains more air molecules and is more dense than the plane’s air, which means the air in the bottle was exerting greater pressure on the bottle than the outside air, causing it to bulge.

Gas Law Example Number 2: Exploding Plastic BottleThis is a common thing that my friends and I do after finishing a bottle of water. The bottle is gripped on the top and bottom and twisted, increasing the pressure, and when the cap is slightly twisted off it will explode and go flying across a room. This is an example of Boyle’s Law, because as the bottle is twisted, the volume of the bottle decreases, and therefore the gas molecules are compressed into a smaller space, causing them to bounce off each other and the sides of the bottle more frequently, resulting in an increase in pressure that is finally released when the bottle cap is opened partially, from which the enormous pressure provides enough force to catapult it anywhere from three to five meters.

Gas Law Example Number 3: Melting Plastic Bottle
Last week, I had finished a bottle of apple juice, and sealed the cap on tight. Then, innocently enough, I left it by the running fireplace. After around ten minutes I went to grab it, and when I did, I noticed that the bottom had expanded outwards into a dramatic dome. This can be explained with both Gay-Lussac’s law and the sheer fact that the plastic had partially melted. For as the bottle had heated up and began to melt, the air inside the bottle also heated up, and this heating caused the air particles to gain more energy and bounce off the sides of the container more. This increase in pressure caused the partially melted plastic to expand as much as it could, which produced the bottle's odd distortion in shape.

=**Assignment 3: A Global Warming?**=

The greenhouse effect, although seeming relatively simple, is actually an incredibly complex series of events that causes certain molecules to reflect energy in different directions. To begin, energy from the sun travels through space and goes through the atmosphere. With a majority of the atmosphere made of the molecules N2,O2, and Argon, the energy, in the form of various frequencies ranging from Infrared to Ultraviolet, passes almost directly through these molecules. This is because as the light passes through, it causes the molecules to vibrate, they do so symmetrically. However, with greenhouse gasses, such as CO2, CH4, H2O, or CFCs, (Chlorofluorocarbons) the molecules can vibrate in many different directions, causing the electric fields and charges to move around the molecules, which results in the energy of the light being absorbed and reemitted randomly, often back towards the earth. This means that energy bouncing off the earth can be redirected back towards the ground, which results in a warming effect as energy is concentrated in the lower levels of the atmosphere.

Myth or Truth?
Is there such as thing as "Clean Coal" or any other fossil fuel? What is the effect of Global Dimming? (See NOVA Episode "Dimming the Sun") It could get warm enough to cause an ice age? Cause more and stronger storms, hurricanes, monsoons, etc.?

=**Assignment 4: Wonderful Water**= · Water is neither a base or acid, it has a pH of seven. This is somewhat rare, but not totally uncommon.

· Water dissolves the most substances of any liquid. This is a unique property that only water has, allowing it to contain countless different compounds and elements.

· Water has an incredibly high specific heat, and thus it warms up slowly even when large amounts of energy are applied to it. This makes it useful as a coolant, as it has one of the highest specific heats of any substance.

· Water has an abnormally high surface tension, which causes it to move against gravity in capillary action. This is unique, as it is what enables vascular plants to draw water up them, allowing them to grow upwards and branch out.

· Humans are nearly 60% water, and every known life form requires water to survive.

Source: http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/mwater.html

=Assignment 5: Investigating Solubility and Immiscibility= = = 1. Oil spills are destructive events that kill large numbers of plants and animals, ruin coastlines, and waste thousands of gallons of a diminishing supply of oil. When one occurs, the priority is cleaning it up quickly. This is done using several different techniques. If it is on more open water that is calm, large, floating booms are used to surround the slick, from where it can be skimmed out of the water or dispersed using chemicals. Other techniques include the use of bacteria that can eat the oil, or in a small spill the oil is often left to disperse. On land, it can get into the fir and feathers of animals, and their food, which can kill them. In addition, it can also destroy beaches by coating them with a sticky, impermeable oil slick. Animals are generally rinsed with soap and water, and shores are usually rinsed with high pressure hoses to push the oil back into the water. Although not always excellent solutions, the techniques used for cleaning oil spills generally work well, and are thus used on oil spills around the world every year.

2. Solubility is the __amount__ of a solute that can be dissolved in a solvent, and is affected by temperature. As the temperature increases, a solvent can dissolve more solute in it than at lower temperatures, due to the fact that the molecules in the solvent are moving faster. Stirring has no effect on a solution’s solubility, as it doesn’t increase the amount of solvent or change the maximum molarity of the solution, and thus solubility doesn’t change. Finally, surface area also has no effect on solubility, as it doesn’t change the maximum molarity of the solution either.

Rate of Dissolution is __how fast__ a solute dissolves in a solvent. This varies with surface area, where increasing it increases the rate of dissolution, as the molecules have a greater area over which they can spread out and dissolve. It also varies with temperature, where increasing temperature increases the speed of all the molecules in the solute, and thus they are able to spread out faster, and with stirring, which spreads out the molecules of the solute and helps them to dissolve faster.

=__**Assignment 6: Reaction Rates**__= The reaction rate of any reaction can change by changing one or more of four things:


 * Concentration:** An example of changing concentration would be combustion in an airplane designed to fly at high altitude. Above roughly 20,000 feet, the air is simply too thin for a standard internal combustion engine to produce sufficient power. As a result, a supercharger, turbocharger, or both is fitted to the air intake. This helps to keep power at a level close to the power output at sea level, due to the fact that it forces more air into the engine, helping to keep the air pressure higher. This increase in pressure increases the concentration of air in the engine, which increase the amount of air molecules in the gas-air mixture. This increase in the number of air molecules means that more air molecules are colliding with, and then combusting with, the gas molecules, resulting in a given amount of gas molecules and air molecules combusting more quickly. Although in reality this is not a closed system, if no gas or air can enter the combustion chambers of the engine it can be pictured as one.


 * Temperature:** An example of changing temperature would be the reaction between water and calcium metal that produces calcium hydroxide and hydrogen gas. If the temperature of the system is increased, then both the water and calcium molecules have more energy, and thus are moving faster and have more high energy collisions. Higher energy collisions in turn mean that there are more collisions that break molecular bonds, and thus a faster reaction. Source: Balancing and Types of Reactions Quiz, Question 5a, from Semester One.


 * Catalyst:** An example of a catalyst reaction is the decomposition of Hydrogen Peroxide using manganese oxide as a catalyst, which is faster than the normal decomposition of Hydrogen Peroxide alone. This occurs because the Manganese Oxide lowers the activation energy needed for the Hydrogen Peroxide to break up, meaning that it requires less energy for the reaction to occur, meaning that it occurs faster at the same energy than without the catalyst. Source: http://www.chemguide.co.uk/physical/basicrates/catalyst.html


 * Surface Area:** An example of changing surface area is burning oil. A gallon of oil spread over a square foot will burn slower than a gallon of area spread over a square yard. This is due to the fact that the greater surface area in the square yard means that more oil molecules are exposed to the air, which means that they are more exposed to collisions with the oxygen molecules, which means that when ignited, they will collide more and thus the oil will combust much more quickly. In contrast, the oil over the square foot has fewer molecules exposed to air, and thus fewer oil molecules can collide with the oxygen molecules and combust over the same amount of time.

=Assignment 7: Equilibrium= One example of an equilibrium system is an airplane flying against a heavy headwind. If the velocity of the air is equal to the forward airspeed of the plane, but in the opposite direction, then an equilibrium system forms. This occurs because the force pushing the plane backwards by the engines is equaled by the force pulling the engine forward. This is similar to a chemical equilibrium in that two opposite processes are balanced, and that there is both a forward and reverse push on the equilibrium. In addition, both systems can experience a stress that will result in a shift to one of the parts of the opposing forces that create the equilibrium. In the plane vs. wind example, if the wind speeds up or the plane slows down, the plane will be going backwards, and if the plane’s engine gets more power or the wind slows down, then the plane will speed up and go forwards. This is the same as Le Chatelier’s Principle in a chemical reaction, where a stress can be added to produce more products or reactants. Finally, both systems will only work when they are closed, that is there are no outside forces acting upon the systems. For the plane, that would be a crosswind, and for chemical equilibrium anything that would allow the system to disperse or break up, as well as disrupt the reactions.

=Assignment 8: Equilibrium 2= 1. Once a chemical system reaches equilibrium, the concentrations of both reactants and products remain constant. This is due to the fact that although the reaction is ongoing, the rates of the forward and reverse reactions are equal, which means that products and reactants are being formed and disbanding at the same rate, meaning the concentrations of the products and reactants will be constant. This does not change the idea of dynamic equilibrium, though, because although the concentrations are constant, they are not static, which means that even at equilibrium, the forward and reverse reactions still occur, only at equal rates, so the amounts, and thus concentrations of both products and reactants remain constant. 2. An equilibrium expression is written by taking the ratio of the concentrations of the products to the concentrations of reactants. That is, for the reaction aA +bB↔cC +dD, where capital letters are the substances and lower case letters are the coefficients from the balanced chemical equation, the equilibrium expression is the equilibrium constant, K= [C]c[D]d divided by [A]a[B]b. Both pure liquids and solids are omitted from this equation, as they have concentrations of 100%. Examples would be: a. 2SO2 (g) + O2 (g) ↔ 2SO3 (g) K=[SO3]2/[SO2]2[O2] b. CO (g) + H2O (g) ↔ CO2 (g) + H2 (g) K= [CO2][H2]/[CO][H2O] c. 2NOCl (g) ↔ 2NO + Cl2 K= [NO]2[Cl2]/[NOCl]2 3. Examples of heterogeneous equations are: a. 4Al (s) + 3O2(g) ↔ 2Al2O3 (s) K=[ Al2O3]2/[Al]4[O2]3 b. PCl3 (l) + Cl2 (g) ↔ PCl5 (s) K=1/Cl2 While this is a homogeneous equation: c. 2H2 (g) + S2 (g) ↔ 2H2S (g) K=[H2S]2/[H2]2[S2]

Assignment 9: Concentrated vs. Dilute and Strong vs. Weak
1. A concentrated solution is a solution that has a relatively large amount of solute dissolved in it, while a dilute solution has a relatively little amount of solute dissolved in the solution. 2. A strong acid solution is a solution that contains a strong acid, which is one of six acids: HCl, HNO3, H2SO4, HBr, HClO4, or HI, which reacts very well, forming the conjugate base and leaving none of the acid left in the solution. Any solution containing any other acid is a weak acid solution, meaning that the acid does not completely or hardly even reacts at all in solution. 3. In a concentrated solution of a strong acid, there is a large amount of acid molecules dissolved in the solution, and all of them have reacted to form their conjugate base. In a concentrated solution of weak acid, there are many acid molecules, but many have not reacted and remain as acids in the solution, but some of the conjugate base is formed. In a dilute solution of a strong acid, there are only a few acid molecules dissolved in the solution, but they all react to form their conjugate bases. In a dilute solution of weak acid, there are only a few acid molecules, and only some of them react to form the conjugate base, with the rest remaining as the acid molecules.

=**Assignment 10: Biomolecules** = Carbohydrates: 1. Carbohydrates are made from a polyhydroxyl ketone or polyhydroxyl aldehyde, or a polymer made from these compounds. 2. Carbohydrates work as a food source for almost all organisms, as well as being a structural material that plants use. 3. Examples of carbohydrates include starches and cellulose.  Proteins: 1. Proteins are made of amino acids, which are organic acids where an amino group, hydrogen atom, and R-group are attached to a carbon atom next to the R-group. 2. Proteins provide structure for parts of the body ranging from hair, muscle, and cartilage, as well as transporting nutrients and acting as a catalyst in many reactions. 3. Examples of Proteins are fibrous proteins and globular proteins.  Lipids: 1. Lipids are substances that are not soluble in water that can be extracted from cells by nonpolar organic solvents. 2. Lipids are used for many things, including fats, soaps and detergents, and as waterproof coatings on objects. 3. Examples of lipids include steroids and waxes. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Nucleic Acids: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">1. Nucleic acids are polymers, and are mainly made of a polymer known as a nucleotide. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">2. There are two main types of nucleic acids, DNA and RNA. DNA is the main information storage device in cells, being unique to each person and containing all the information required to tell proteins what functions to perform in order for the cell, and the organism, to survive. RNA is used to transfer information from the cell’s nucleus to the structures used to synthesize proteins. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">3. Examples of nucleic acids are DNA and RNA.