User talk:Physchim62

Physchim62 flys the Skull and Crossmops as a former administrator: "I know where the lines are, because I've already crossed them!"

No responguis a l'insensat segons la seva ximpleria, perquè no et tornis com ell, també tu.

Respon a l'insensat segons la seva ximpleria, perquè no es pensi ser savi.

Proverbi 26, 4–5

→Archive 2005
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This editor is a Labutnum and is entitled to display this Book of Knowledge with Coffee Cup Stain, Cigarette Burn, Chewed Broken Pencil, and Sticky Note.

The large wet haddock, which keeps an eye on Physchim62.

The practical realisation of the above

Holiday

Back now, normal "service" will resume shortly! Physchim62 (talk) 14:45, 9 August 2010 (UTC)

OrgSynAssistant (talk · contribs)

Hey PC

When you have a moment, could you take a look at his talk and respond? --Rifleman 82 (talk) 01:55, 8 September 2010 (UTC)

Ouch, yes, that needs dealing with! I'll get onto it straight away. Physchim62 (talk) 02:45, 8 September 2010 (UTC)

AfD closed

I have closed the AfD as speedy keep. Please don't make any more WP:POINT-y nominations of well-referenced articles on topics of massive, worldwide interest. Thanks, The Hero of This Nation (talk) 23:09, 8 September 2010 (UTC)

Reply on your talk page. Summary: please read WP:NPOV. Physchim62 (talk) 23:33, 8 September 2010 (UTC)

International Burn a Koran Day

Reopening an AFD that someone else closed as a snowball close, when you're the nominator = bad idea. Don't do it again pleasethankyou. Ten Pound Hammer, his otters and a clue-bat • ^{(Otters want attention)} 01:20, 9 September 2010 (UTC)

There you are taking process over common sense, but I shall take the issue to WP:DRV if that's what you wish. You will only have wasted time that could have been spent improving an encyclopedia, after all... Physchim62 (talk) 01:53, 9 September 2010 (UTC)

The common sense is that every !vote so far has been a speedy keep. With that sheer number, do you really expect any other outcome? Ten Pound Hammer, his otters and a clue-bat • ^{(Otters want attention)} 01:55, 9 September 2010 (UTC)

(1) Not true; (2) after how much discussion? Physchim62 (talk) 01:56, 9 September 2010 (UTC)

It would have cost you nothing to keep the discussion open, yet you chose to close it after less than two hours, quoting process and then !votes. As a result, the "discussion" shall now have to move to WP:DRV, wasting everybodies' time. I hope you're proud. Physchim62 (talk) 02:04, 9 September 2010 (UTC)

Wasting no more time than it would've wasted to keep it open and let it gather more "speedy keep"s. Ten Pound Hammer, his otters and a clue-bat • ^{(Otters want attention)} 02:12, 9 September 2010 (UTC)

Physchim62, I am with you on this one. Also, it was closed before I saw it. This so-called international event is just a one-off event which may not even happen. It is well covered in the article on the church, and the article on the event should be changed to a redirect. --Bduke (Discussion) 02:28, 9 September 2010 (UTC)

You've persuaded me, along with this additional comment at WP:ITN/C. WP:SNOW is not meant to stifle real discussion about the relevance of articles in the encyclopedia, especially not in such a short time frame. WP:IAR it is then... Physchim62 (talk) 02:46, 9 September 2010 (UTC)

Why have the maturity to admit you are wrong when you can invoke IAR instead? 220.210.177.79 (talk) 10:57, 9 September 2010 (UTC)

Decomposition of manganese(IV) fluoride

It says in the article that it decomposes to manganese(III) fluoride at room temperature. Does it liberate fluorine gas? Sorry if I am asking too many questions lately. I just seem to be curious about "quirks" in wikipedia articles. --Chemicalinterest (talk) 00:58, 11 September 2010 (UTC)

Yes, it liberates fluorine gas. Any oxide or halide will do this if you raise the temperature high enough, but MnF₄ happens to do it spontaneously (if quite slowly) at room temperature. Reading between the lines, it must be stable at or near room temperature under an atmosphere of fluorine gas, otherwise you wouldn't be able to make it in the first place: I'll see if I can dig out any details. Physchim62 (talk) 01:24, 11 September 2010 (UTC)

I don't happen to have the latter chemical, but what happens when you react Manganese(IV) oxide with hydrofluoric acid? If fluorine gas could be obtained that easily, then I thought there would be more "mad scientists" making fluorine. :)--Chemicalinterest (talk) 10:49, 11 September 2010 (UTC)

You would get manganese(II) fluoride, oxygen and water, that's fairly clear, as manganese(III) fluoride is a strong enough oxidizing agent to oxidize water to O₂. You wouldn't get hydrogen peroxide because MnO₂ happens to be a very efficient catalyst for the disproportionation of H₂O₂. To get MnF₄ (and MnF₃), you need fluorine gas. In fact, the reaction is used industrially to purify fluorine gas: you take MnF₃ and convert it to MnF₄ with impure fluorine, sweep away the remaining gas (which contains the impurities) and then heat the MnF₄ to 70–100 °C to drive off fluorine gas which is more than 99.95% pure. Neat trick, IMHO, if you need fluorine gas that pure! Physchim62 (talk) 11:48, 11 September 2010 (UTC)

Natural selection (or God, if you prefer) has a very efficient way of keeping the number of mad scientists who make significant quantities of fluorine gas extremely close to zero at any one time! Seriously, you wouldn’t be able to do it. Fluorine gas is used for uranium enrichment (i.e., making nuclear weapons) and also, perhaps more importantly, for making many of the nastiest kinds of chemical weapons. If you tried to buy the stuff you would need to produce fluorine gas safely and effectively, you would very quickly get a visit from your local secret service to find out why you wanted to do it.

I was doing my Ph.D. at the time of the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway in March 1995. For about a week after the attack, the authorities said that it was impossible that the gas used was sarin because, to make sarin, you need elemental fluorine and no terrorist organization would be able to make or use fluorine gas. The second part is probably true, and even truer now than in 1995 because the controls have been tightened. On the other hand, a bunch of three or four of us on the newsgroup sci.chem had figured out within 24 hours the actual synthesis the Japanese religious nutcases had probably used, that doesn’t need fluorine gas, based on news reports of the chemicals found at their “base” and some fairly basic phosphorus chemistry. Obviously the secret services weren’t reading sci.chem at that time! (you won’t find the details of the synthesis on sci.chem, for obvious reasons: we phrased our conversations in such a way that only someone with some knowledge of phosphorus chemistry would understand, and almost all of the necessary conditions are left out). Physchim62 (talk) 14:34, 11 September 2010 (UTC)

Probably my last question. Why are the manganese(III) and manganese(IV) fluorides so reactive, yet the oxides are relatively inert? If I mix manganese(IV) oxide and sugar with a drop of water I will give my word that it does not ignite. Is the bond so weak in the fluoride? If the oxides were as strong oxidizing agents, then manganese(IV) oxide would decompose to manganese(II) oxide and oxygen spontaneously. --Chemicalinterest (talk) 11:55, 11 September 2010 (UTC)

Hmm, that’s actually quite a complicated one! Firstly, MnO₂ is not really “unreactive” in the thermodynamic sense, only in the kinetic sense. German-speaking chemists normally call it Braunstein (literally “brown stone”), because (depending on how you prepare it) it can often seem to have the reactivity of your average stone. But it will give up its excess oxygen quite easily, simply by heating to 530 °C, for example (it goes to manganese(III) oxide). And it is very very difficult to get up to exactly two oxygens per manganese, not that this matters for most practical uses.

The Mn–F bonds are obviously weaker than the corresponding Mn–O bonds, or we wouldn’t see the differences in reactivity that you point out. This is quite a general rule for transition metals, M–F bonds are almost always relatively weak for M = transition metal. The usual, relatively simple explanation is called HSAB theory: fluoride is about the hardest base there is, whereas most transition metal cations are relatively soft acids.

The full explanation is a lot more complicated, because HSAB theory is only an approximation (albeit a very useful one) based on experimental observation. It turns out that fluoride is simply too hard for many high oxidation state centres. Imagine building a compound from the original ions: let’s take an Mn⁷⁺ ion as our centre. Now the manganese ion “wants” to scrape electrons from just about anywhere, because you’ve needed 38,000 kJ/mol (9000 kcal/mol) to make it! But fluoride ions are so hard that they really don’t “want” to give up their electrons to anything: the Mn⁷⁺ centre isn’t “happy” with the electrons it can scrape even from seven fluoride ions, so it spits out elemental fluorine (keeping the electrons as it goes, i.e. reducing itself) until it reaches a state where it’s “happy” (round about MnF₄). The oxide ion, on the other hand, is a little bit softer than the fluoride ion, so it shares its electrons a little more easily. The Mn⁷⁺ centre can scrape just about enough electrons from four oxide ions to make it “happy” – until, that is, something comes along which is more likely to give up its electrons and hup, you have an oxidation reaction (with the manganese(VII) taking the electrons and being reduced). This is why many elements will form an oxide in a higher oxidation state than the highest fluoride. Physchim62 (talk) 13:52, 11 September 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for explaining that. So there is more to the bonding strength than the ease of oxidation of fluoride vs. oxide. --Chemicalinterest (talk) 15:16, 11 September 2010 (UTC)

Fasciculation

Thanks for that link, it pointed me in the right direction. Now I can sleep at night, I'd started wondering if there really was such a thing as 'nerve failure' lifting weights :-) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Spoonfulsofsheep (talk • contribs) 20:57, 12 September 2010 (UTC)

Fluorine color

I will ask you as you are knowledgeable in this area. What do you think of File:Fluorine.jpg? Is my explanation at simple:Fluorine fine? Thank you. --Chemicalinterest (talk) 21:37, 13 September 2010 (UTC)

I dislike File:Fluorine.jpg but, as I don't have a free alternative to offer, I try not to make a big fuss about it ;) Fluorine gas is essentially colourless (see image on WebElements); it condenses to a pale yellow liquid (image, video), but then oxygen condenses to a pale blue liquid and we don't say oxygen is blue! In my mind, the "photomontage" is basically just a lie. I don't want to be too harsh on images-of-elements.com because they've been very kind in making their images available to everyone, but this isn't one of their best. Physchim62 (talk) 23:49, 13 September 2010 (UTC)

Your article at simple:Fluorine seems fine, as far as I know about Simple English Wikipedia. The only point I would dispute is when you mention nuclear weapons. There is very little or no uranium being enriched to weapons grade at the moment, even if you count rogue states such as North Korea, Iran or Israel. In the U.S., weapons grade uranium (some bought from Russia, some local) is being "de-enriched" to serve as fuel for nuclear power stations, and civilian nuclear power has long been the major enrichment need. So I think it would be better to concentrate on the known civilian use rather than the hypothetical military use. Physchim62 (talk) 01:37, 14 September 2010 (UTC)

I didn't put that into the article because I think everyone's making secret nuclear weapons. It says in our fluorine article that the two main uses of fluorine were to make UF6 and SF6. So I added the nuclear explanation, which is easier for simple wiki users to understand. Thanks. --Chemicalinterest (talk) 10:35, 14 September 2010 (UTC)

Titrations

"Reaction" of acetic acid and sodium hypochlorite in far right test tube

I do not have any accurate equipment. I have a scale that sometimes provides bogus results. I also have bottles of tainted impure chemicals; my hydrochloric acid is green-yellow. Last of all, I have a spatula that is covered with all sorts of chemicals and a stirring rod that is a piece of plastic pipe, with chemicals inside the pipe. --Chemicalinterest (talk) 19:34, 16 September 2010 (UTC)
I found out what was wrong. Household bleach very well may react with non-chloride acids since bleach contains sodium chloride. Pure sodium hypochlorite, on the other hand, probably won't react with acids unless it decomposed to NaCl, releasing oxygen gas. Then the Cl^– is there and chlorine can be produced. --Chemicalinterest (talk) 19:37, 16 September 2010 (UTC)

OK, you can't do titrations! Never mind, it would have been nice to proove it to you practically, but without numerical measurements that's virtually impossible.

You still haven't quite "got it": you still don't seem to accept that hypochlorite can oxidize itself. The product of the disproportionation depends on the pH and a whole load of other conditions but, to simplify: below pH 4.56 the reduced product will be mostly chlorine; above pH 4.56 the reduced product will be mostly chloride. The rate of the dispropotionation is dependant on the hydrogen ion concentration, that is a drop in one "pH unit" increases the rate by a factor of ten. Physchim62 (talk) 19:45, 16 September 2010 (UTC)

Do you have a lab? If you do, please react concentrated phosphoric acid with concentrated sodium hypochlorite. Can Wikipedia support AVI files? I can take a video of reacting bleach with acetic acid. I just ruined my parent's bleach bottle by sticking dirty eyedroppers in it, though. --Chemicalinterest (talk) 20:01, 16 September 2010 (UTC)

Chlorine test for acetic acid + sodium hypochlorite

I want to do this. Mix acetic acid and bleach. The reaction should occur slowly. Throw some salt on it. The reaction should speed up rapidly. --Chemicalinterest (talk) 20:15, 16 September 2010 (UTC)

OK, but let me do the calculations first, to make sure you see the bubbles of chlorine but that you're not going to make enough chlorine to do yourself any harm. Physchim62 (talk) 20:19, 16 September 2010 (UTC)

I threw bleach and hydrochloric acid together just for the fun of it. Nice fizzle. As I stated in another post, I only work with millimeter quantities of chemicals (minichemistry?), so 1 millimeter of Cl2-making stuff that is much weaker than hydrochloric acid will probably not harm. --Chemicalinterest (talk) 20:38, 16 September 2010 (UTC)

Fair enough then. Bleach and acetic acid, you say it doesn't fizzle. Best if you dissolve the NaCl in water first before you add it, that way it will mix better. Physchim62 (talk) 20:57, 16 September 2010 (UTC)

I could not do the chemistry experiment last night, because I was busy... I'll try again today. --Chemicalinterest (talk) 11:13, 17 September 2010 (UTC)

Results:

1. No visible chlorine gas was produced when household acetic acid was reacted with household bleach.
2. A pool chlorine indicator showed that the chlorine gas produced when acetic acid was added to household bleach was hardly higher than the chlorine gas produced by sodium hypochlorite alone.
3. The pool chlorine indicator would show light yellow for slight chlorine, bright yellow for more concentrated chlorine, and a red precipitate for any chlorine dissolved in water (provided that the chlorine indicator was placed in water)

   

   Chlorine test for sodium hypochlorite

• Please provide comments below. --Chemicalinterest (talk) 13:12, 17 September 2010 (UTC)

Don't assume that I am being hostile to you. I am just trying to prove a hypothesis. This process is important to all scientific studies. --Chemicalinterest (talk) 15:07, 17 September 2010 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Non-U.S. copyrights

A nice piece of work, and very useful. May I suggest a few things though?

• The Non-restored copyrights and especially Subsisting copyrights sections are confusing to the point that they're ridiculously difficult to understand.
• Maybe the page could use an update? Don't worry so much on this last point. Magog the Ogre (talk) 04:13, 18 September 2010 (UTC)

ITN for Philippe Croizon

--Best, HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 23:31, 19 September 2010 (UTC)

CatalunyaCaixa

Bones! He vist que has creat l'article de CatalunyaCaixa. Tinc un dubte sobre una informació, has posat que és parcialment propietat de la Generalitat de Catalunya. No n'estic segur d'això... pot ser un error per que Caixa Catalunya és/era propietat de la Diputació de Barcelona i la Caixa Tarragona de la Diputació de Tarragona? (la de Manresa és/era privada). Bé no se si és cert, però en cas que ho sigui, igualment s'hauria d'afegir lo de les diputacions.

un salut!--Vilar 18:58, 21 September 2010 (UTC)

Jo tampoc n’estic segur! Vaig crear l’article al moment de les proves d’estrès aquest estiu, perquè ningú angloparlant no reconeixia els nous nombres de les noves caixes fusionades. No he trobat massa informació sobre la nova caixa, tampoc en català, llavors he utilitzat el nostre article Caixa Catalunya com guió, d’on ve el punt sobre la “propietat parcial” de la Generalitat.

No em sembla clar de parlar d’una “propietat” sobre les caixes i no sé lo que passaria amb un excedent de liquidació, si una caixa seria dissoluta en estat de solvència. La Diputació de Barcelona era l’entitat fundadora de Caixa Catalunya, però no sé a quin punt la Generalitat de Macià va assumir responsabilitats abans la guerra incivil, ni si hi va haver trasllats de poder en democràcia. Al contrari, sé que la Generalitat era molt implicada en Caixa Catalunya fa uns anys, i que els funcionaris de la Generalitat era “fortament aconsellats” de rebre el sou en un compte allà. En l’incertitud, he tret la frase de l’article. Physchim62 (talk) 21:07, 21 September 2010 (UTC)

Butter

[1] nice:) DMacks (talk) 15:27, 25 September 2010 (UTC)

Thanks! Physchim62 (talk) 15:41, 25 September 2010 (UTC)

User talk:SandyGeorgia

I won't template you, but you know better. Telling another user to "shut the fuck up", even by using the acronym (we all know what it means) is completely unacceptable. It's a personal attack; plain as day. Do it again and I'll have to block you. Courcelles 20:55, 28 September 2010 (UTC)