10/23 Open Thread: It's Mole Day!

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Nuclear

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Please Note! Before I go any further, given the headline topic, it behooves me to point out that there are great benefits to perusing the material on Mole day. You may be a chemist who is sure that you know all about moles, or someone who is certain that there is no use or purpose to reading this, or somebody who otherwise has simply no interest in the subject. Nonetheless, it is important to take the time and made the effort to pay attention here, as will be made clear shortly. Trust me, it is to Your Personal Benefit, honestly.

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OK, so I'll start with the easy part, a quickie wiki on the general topic of mole day:

Mole Day is an unofficial holiday celebrated among chemists, chemistry students, chemistry enthusiasts and Design & Technology teachers and students on October 23, between 6:02 a.m. and 6:02 p.m.,[1][2] making the date 6:02 10/23 in the American style of writing dates. The time and date are derived from the Avogadro number, which is approximately 6.02×1023, defining the number of particles (atoms or molecules) in one mole (mol) of substance, one of the seven base SI units. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole_Day )

Not such a great definition, how much or many, but not what it is or is for. Of course, you can readily see that it deals with molecules, while my illustration is sort of a stylized atom, but before you get on my case, please remember the Noble Gases, whose molecules are but single atoms, so there. At any rate, were sort of at an intersection of physics and chemistry. To get a handle onthis we need to look back to processes and procedures as they wee before we redefined the SI units and such. If you were to make water from scratch, you'd combine two hydrogen atoms with one oxygen atom. Normally, both of those elements exist as molecules, however, H2 and O2, so you'd mix two hydrogen molecules and one oxygen molecule and get 2 water molecules. (2H2+O2=2(H2O)). Hard to grab those tiny suckers, though. So we look up hydrogen and it has a mass of 1 amu, so H2 would be 2amu. Oxygen is 16 amu, so O2 is 32 amu.An amu is still minuscule, but if we multiply by a big enough number we'll get a serviceable quantity. Thus evolved the gram molecular weight, or mole. 1 mole of H2 is 2 grams, and one mole of O2 is 32 grams, so we mix 4 grams of H2 with 32 grams of O2 to get 36 grams of water. Easy peasy, right? That "big enough number" is Avogadro's number, the number of atoms/molecules in a mole. Of course, we do have to find a way to weigh these gases, but we now have an idea what moles are good for.

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I picked 2 gases because getting there started with the gas laws, which were largely developed in the 17th century. They deal with ideal gases which, of course, don't exist any more than das ding an sich does, but real gases are a close enough Imagine a closed cylinder with a piston in one end. Fill it with a gas, and the gas will undergo Brownian motion at any temperature above absolute zero, little particles bouncing around at random with energies and hence velocities statistically roughly proportional to the temperature. (First described by Robert Brown in 1827, we really didn't have that good of a handle on Brownian motion until some guy named Albert Einstein wrote a paper on it in 1905.) All that bouncing off the walls creates Pressure, Temperature dependent pressure. Guy-Lussac formulated this thusly P=kT, where k is some constant, assuming, of course, that the Volume does not change. If you push the piston in, you obviously compress the gas, because you decrease the Volume. This generated Boyle's Law, that the pressure of an ideal gas is inversely proportional to its volume (at a constant temperature) (PV=k) for some other constant k. Pulling the piston out, of course, lessens the volume and decreases the pressure, often seen as a partial vacuum if performed in an environment which includes normal outside air pressure. Meanwhile, Charles' Law describes the fact that the volume of a gas held at a constant pressure will vary in accordance with the temperature, in essence, V=Tk (yet another constant). So, you can massage all of those around to formulate a Universal Gas Law for the kinetic theory of gases (bouncy, bouncy) and net/aggregate all of the constants into one Unified constant R, as follows: PV=nRT. What, what's that "n" doing in there? That is the number of moles of gas, because if you add more gas to the container, then obviously the pressure, temperature or volume must increase, right? Enter our old friend Amadeo Avogadro who formulated Avogadro's Law (cue da wiki):

Avogadro's Law states that the relationship between the masses of the same volume of all gases (at the same temperature and pressure) corresponds to the relationship between their respective molecular weights. Hence, the relative molecular mass of a gas can be calculated from the mass of a sample of known volume.

Huh? Okay, how about the volume of a gas is proportional to the number of atoms or molecules regardless of the nature of the gas, or, better yet equal volumes of all gases, at the same temperature and pressure, have the same number of molecules. Yep, a cubic foot of any gas at one atmosphere of pressure and 65 degrees will have the same number of molecules as a cubic foot of any other gas at that temperature and pressure. This is what ties it all together and permits us to formulate a truly Universal Gas Law: PV=nRT.

Whew!

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NOW, About That Reward Benefit:
On April 30, 2017, Quartz published The psychological importance of wasting time by Olivia Goldhill. It is here: https://qz.com/970924/the-psychological-importance-of-wasting-time/ , it is short, and it is worth the read. For Grins. "google"(tm) that exact title, "The psychological importance of wasting time", and check the results. As of 10/22/2019, the first page serves up The article in Quartz already cited, The Psychological Importance of Wasting Time - Allison Hudson (https://medium.com/@allyhudson03/the-psychological-importance-of-wasting-time-c1c486d41eba ), The psychological importance of wasting time – SACAP (https://www.sacap.edu.za/blog/psychology/wasting-time/), Wasting Time May Be the Best Thing You Do Today ... ( link to Quartz), The Psychological Importance of Wasting Time - Self-Coaching (404), The Art Of Wasting Time And Its Psychological Importance (looks like excerpts from Quartz), Wasting Time May Be the Best Thing You Do Today ...(https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-couch/201201/wasting-time-ma...), The psychological importance of wasting time | Hacker News (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14231158), and that's just page 1 (and not all of it either). Clearly, there is profound psychological benefit to "wasting time", creating an interesting paradox in that said benefit(s) mean it isn't really wasting time. It seems that we do waaaay to much multi-tasking and not nearly enough half-tasking or non-tasking.

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So get with it! Stop tasking and go waste some time. Re-read this column, take a stroll outside, go sit and look at the sky, play table top football or make paper airplanes. Grab a buddy and go out to a somewhat busy outdoor area look up and point, when people ask what is going on tell them that you're trying to overcome your pathological fear of crowds. You'll thank me later.

You'll thank me later.

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Title Image is Atom

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It's an open thread, so have at it. The floor is yours
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magiamma's picture

Google’s Sycamore quantum computer has achieved ‘quantum supremacy’

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/google-quantum-supremacy-computi...

Hmmm... Food for thought.

Thanks for the excellent ot. Have a good one.

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enhydra lutris's picture

@magiamma
I suspect that it's still a few years from being an all purpose machine. Your "food for thought" line was a delicious irony given that the article on said computer had an ad and linked article for the Instant Pot embedded in it. (Truth be told, I don't use mine as much as I should because I only cook for 2, but I really love it when I do.)

Have a good one.

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dystopian's picture

Very good stuff EL... this subject is really a gas... a noble one too. Wink

The art of doing nothing is all but lost, the importance long lost. Don Juan of the Castenada books was a great proponent of this. We spend all this time all wound up, where is the wound down? For me nature study, birding in particular, is the perfect answer. Besides the great exercise of walking, the rest of the time you are sitting or standing around seeing 'nothing'. It is so good for you. Even most birders are so over charged running around they can't even sit at a drip and watch. I used to seawatch with a scope, counting migrating seabirds passing a promontory. Many can't take an hour of sitting still. All the fuss of life is a discharge, we must recharge, and there are waking types of this that have to occur, just as the sleeping part must.

"They say I am lazy, but it takes all my time"
- the great philosopher Joe Walsh

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

enhydra lutris's picture

@dystopian
"sitting doing nothing" or "inaction", great stuff and a largely lost art. I agree that birding can be a great relaxer, if approached in that manner, though I too have been among the frenetic ones, especially on exotic guided birding tours.

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magiamma's picture

@dystopian
Crows were going nuts. It finally flew and the crows chased it for ~5 minutes (so it seemed)
I was just gliding. And huge. And oh so magnificant. The crows would from time to time take a swipe at it and finally dispersed except for one, very angry one. Maybe it ate a baby because I heard the babe in the preserve but have not heard it since. Tres cool.

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enhydra lutris's picture

@magiamma

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magiamma's picture

@enhydra lutris
managed by the xerces society. It is five acres and no one really manages it. Half of it is owned by Fish and Wildlife who also do nothing. It is a bunch of eucs and ivy and poison oak. The good news is that it is a green space and no one hangs out there and no one camps there. There used to be lots, tons of butterflies there now only maybe 10 or 20. The other place is Natural Bridges which is where most of the butterflies are now. The monarchs have a parasite name OE, whatever that means. About half of them here have the parasite and so do not leave as they are too weak. The ones in Florida apparently are more like 70% infected. The butterflies are also not migrating but staying here due to lack of habitat and changing weather patterns. More info than I intended but there you have it. Lots of dedicated people over at Natural Bridges. Worth seeing.

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@magiamma
of yet. Visited Natural Bridges once long ago, but it wasn't peak season so to speak. Visited the one in Pacific Grove maybe twice. I guess the ones where you are have a source of tropical milkweed so they have a perennial food source. That appears to be a key to establishing a stable non-migratory population, from what little I've read. Poison oak will certainly deter management activities, or any other ones as well. Not sure if that is good or bad.

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Granma's picture

Wasting time these days. I think it might be more appropriate to call it relaxing, though. There are really negative connotations in my mind to wasting time.

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enhydra lutris's picture

@Granma
connotations attached to "wasting time" and put them in tune with things like "idling away the hours", a pleasant state of being, or "Wu Wei", an affirmative goal of immersion in the oneness of it all via just being ther and letting it all go one.

Have a great one.

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Granma's picture

@enhydra lutris of doing nothing, or nothing in particular. But I think it is a hard sell for most people if called wasting time. And it really isn't. Doing nothing for a few minutes at a time is important. We're meant to slow down and just Be.

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thanatokephaloides's picture

@Granma

I think it might be more appropriate to call it relaxing, though. There are really negative connotations in my mind to wasting time.

It's not a waste, though. Rest is necessary.

The story goes that ancient Israel was evicted from its homeland because the people did not give the land itself the sabbatical growing seasons to which the Law of Moses entitled it. (See Jewish Scriptures, II Chronicles 36:21)

And, of course, the original Sabbath was established to provide rest for humans and animals.

Taking a break is not a waste of time!

Smile

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Granma's picture

@thanatokephaloides every 7th year, not all at the same time, but on a rotating basis so that each field rested every 7th year. I hadn't realized they stopped doing that and were punished for it, according to Biblical account.

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Granma's picture

@Granma @thanatokephaloides

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dystopian's picture

Thanks EL,

Nowadays, people would make fun of Walden 'for just staring at that pond'. Much less what they would think of Thoreau, Muir, Leopold, etc.

I saw something recently about the creative being more prone to 'day dreaming', and that this 'day dreaming' was actually quite good for you, mentally.

I might just be staring out at the sea of nothing but it doesn't mean my mind isn't on a journey a million miles away, or one to inner space.

Smile

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

dystopian's picture

I thought this was going to be about small furry animals. The Star-nosed Mole is one of my favs. You know, like maybe small furry animals gathered together in a cave grooving with a pict.

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

Anja Geitz's picture

Even the much-maligned TV binge-watch can be a transporting experience—if you relax and enjoy it. One study found that watching TV is considerably less enjoyable for those who then berate themselves as “couch potatoes.”

Came from the movie Wall-E, where overweight citizens were put in high tech easy chairs that were suspended above ground. They were provided with individual TV's and milkshakes so they wouldn't think too much about the fact that earth was an inhabitable burning pyre of toxins, and they lived in an outer space biosphere controlled by the government.

image_26.jpeg

Great article about wasting time for our mental health. Will go waste some time outdoors enjoying the sunshine under the shade of the trees here in the garden. I've been teaching my deaf cat to walk on a leash so she can safely be outside again. Strictly speaking though, she's the one who walks me around the garden.

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

enhydra lutris's picture

@Anja Geitz
that. We trained ours to go on leashes, which always astounded most people who we unaware tht the secret was to go where they wanted to, at their pace. Any leash/collar that they cannot get out of is, in the long run, a danger to them. The leash simply gives an alert owner time to gain control and scoop them up when they begin trying to shed the one that they're wearing.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --