Paul Sutton

September 15, 2023

Home Chemistry 19 part 1

How to calculate what is needed for a displacement reaction to take place.

I asked this on Science forums but this is the basis of my question

I have some Copper Sulfate in solution, along with various metallic elements which should produce a displacement reaction for example

Rough equations@-

CuSO_4 + Mg => MgSO4 + Cu
CuSO_4 + Zn => ZnSO4 + Cu
CuSO_4 + Al => AlSO4 + Cu

If I make up a 0.1 molar solution of Copper Sulfate at 100ml volume I need 2.49g of Copper Sulfate in 100ml water. This is fine.

Now if I wanted to add just enough of one of the above metals to displace all the copper do I calculate as follows

( I could look this up, but I have an idea of how to do this, so am asking to see if I am on the right track)

1 M of Copper sulfate weighs 249g
Mass of copper is 63.54 g then calculating the % composition gives
- 63.54 / 249 = 0.26 x 100 = 26%

So if I have a 0.1 M solution, and used 2.49 g of the copper sulfate do I then work out what 26% of that is with

0.26 x 2.49 = 0.65g

Therefore I need 0.65g of one of the above elements to displace the Copper

I think that I am nearly there with this, but given Magnesium , Aluminium and Zinc all have different weights, do I need to factor in the atomic mass of the element I am using for the displacement ?

Or just weigh out say 0.65g of Magnesium to produce

CuSO4 5H2O (solution) + Mg = MgSO4 (solution) + Cu + H20

I am not quite sure what happens to the 5H_2O here.

Am I right on my thinking here ?

Science forum question

#Chemistry,#HomeChemistry,#HomeChemistry19

September 14, 2023

WSJ Article on Exxon

I am sharing this as it really does expose what is going on at the top of the oil / gas / fossil fuel industries. This was posted to the Fediverse earlier.

Inside Exxon’s Strategy to Downplay Climate Change

Worth reading and sharing further, also we need to be discussing this and formulating a real solution to fight back against big oil and the fossil fuel industry.

Original fed post here

September 14, 2023

Repl.it desktop app error

I have downloaded the Repl.it app for GNU/Linux Amd64.
1. Switched to a root shell with su - 2. Navigated to where the .deb file was downloaded to 3. Entered the following

dpkg -i ./replit_1.0.0_amd64.deb

And got the following output dpkg-deb: error: archive './replit_1.0.0_amd64.deb' uses unknown compression for member 'control.tar.zst', giving up dpkg: error processing archive ./replit_1.0.0_amd64.deb (--install): dpkg-deb --control subprocess returned error exit status 2 Errors were encountered while processing: ./replit_1.0.0_amd64.deb

Issue seems to be the compression is using tar.zst, I have no idea what this is either, normally it is .tar.gz

Sharing here in case anyone else has a problem.

Repl.it

Update

Asked on the Replit forum and it seems it may have something to do with my Debian version, see post here

Tags

#Coding,#Development,#programming,#Cloud,#Virtual,#replit

September 14, 2023

Code Club 16/9/2023

The next Paignton Library code club is on Saturday 16th September 2023, 10 am to 12:00. We will carry on with with the Code Club and hour of code projects and hopefully also the Python Projects.

We may have a potential volunteer dropping in to see what we are about too.

I have added more links below to try and reflect our current set of activities.

Useful Links

Tags

#CodeClub,#Python,#HourOfCode,#Scratch,#Minecraft,#Themes, #Java,#Programmng

September 14, 2023

NFL 2023 week 2

NFL week 2 fixtures can be found here

Links

Tags

#Football,#NFL,#Week2

The October event, scheduled for the 14th October has been Cancelled. This will allow me some time to stock take resources, and prepare properly for future sessions. It will also allow the library time to reach out and get some more help in to run sessions.

I was asked about the Horrible science kit (see below). This kit has about ½ of what is needed, the other ½ needs to be sourced. I need too work out what is practical to do during a session and also source these items accordingly. I can't get or buy everything.

chaos chem

September 13, 2023

Making a Sodium Chloride Solution attempt 3 part 2

So following on from the previous video, this is now part 2.

Making 100ml of 0.5 M Sodium Chloride.

Having measured out the Sodium Chloride, I now add this to the volumetric flask and then add water to the 100ml line. This was done in stages so that small amounts of water were added with a pipette to ensure the exact amount is added with less risk of going over the 100ml line.

I hope this video at least demonstrates I can undertake making up solutions.

September 13, 2023

Tantalising sign of possible life on faraway world

BBC News. This is an interesting discovery but does warrant further investigation, so the key molecule found here appear to be:

Dimehyl-sulfide

I have put in the –'s so it is easier to read, other molecules that appear to have been found are Methane (CH_4) , both of which are linked to life in some way, clearly Methane also very common here on Earth.

We have been discussing this on the Fediverse, so hence the agreement about further investigation, but also we seem to have been here before with finding Phosphine on Venus, which had the press having pictures of flying aliens.

We probably won't find complex life, but even simple Organic molecules and other molecules that are the building blocks of amino acids could suggest potential for life.

We did find Ammonia on Pluto for example.

See what happens when the studies come out. In the meantime there is a more detailed article from metro here and a paper here