chemistry chat with... the ex?

him: 

What is this "famous chemistry constant" they're telling us about at the trivia game? I don't think you ever said anything about it.

6.022 X 10 to the 23rd?

 

me: 

Mole 

 

him: 

He said something like avocado theorem. 

 

me: 

The number of atoms of carbon in 12.01 grams of carbon.

Avogadro's number. 

 

him: 

I'm sure few other teams got it, either.

Famous my ass. 

 

me: 

It is the absolute necessity for chemistry to work, to be able to mix items and know how much of each is needed to make the desired amount of product. 

------------------------

I'm so glad that chemistry makes people think of me!

Sometimes I miss teaching... but I never miss grading lab papers!

Good to know folks aren't afraid to reach out to me for science.

(smile!)

B C F H I K N O P S U V W Y

Alphabet soup?
Nope!
A word with Slavic origins?
Wrong again!
The letters for all of the elements which have a single letter as their chemical symbol?
Bing, bing, bing!!! Correct-o-mundo!
And so I ended yesterday on a high note, playing trivia with the Liquor Posse at a local watering hole. What a nice way to finish a day which had begun so poorly! Even better, this particular answer was the final question, worth forty-two points if all fourteen parts were correct. And I nailed it, with some assistance from the team for U, V, and Y. Woohoo!
That final question was not the only one I nailed, either. The game had started with a question about SNL's Jeopardy skits: who played Trebek? Why, that was Will Ferrell!!! And I knew it! Oddly, I seemed to be the only one who did, too. Still, we wagered our maximum bid on it and we were off and running!
I know, I know. It's just a trivia game, right?
True, but I am usually not good at those games. I may know one question, or think I know it, but usually not so much.
Tonight, I was the team leader on that first question. Amazing!
Then, I knew the one about the sports figure on the most Wheaties boxes.
Michael Jordan, of course!
Then, the game-changing final question came along. You get 3 points per correct answer, but lose 3 points for every wrong answer. For a 14-parter, you stood to gain as many as 42 points... but you could also lose that many if you blew all of it.
We weren't in the lead, for a change. We weren't even close enough to the lead to be in second place.
We were third out from the win, behind by 19 points.
Ouch.
Then the final question came and the answer slip flew in front of me! They all know what I do for a living and this was definitely in my field of expertise! I wrote nine of the 14 immediately, seeing the Periodic Table with my mind's eye. Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen, Sulfur, Phosphorus: the backbones of the molecules of biochemistry and organic chemistry, the mainstays of our lives. Fluorine, Iodine: halogens, in the same family of chemicals. Potassium: that's a K, y'all, not a P or a Po, and we can thank the Romans for that confusion. Then came, Tungsten, aka "Wolfram", a favorite W-word for me and another team player. Thanks to him, and his methodical perusal of the alphabet, together with my knowledge of the names of the elements, we finished up with Uranium, Vanadium, and Yttrium.
Woohoo!
That didn't give us enough gain to win (the winning team also had a science teacher in their ranks), but we did take 2nd! Yeah! $20 gift card for the team's next visit!
This visit, my dinner was free. That's right, free! Along with four other members of our team, we split the 1st-place and 2nd-place gift cards from previous weeks.
Ah, such sweet victory!

bread pudding!

Last Thursday evening, I ventured downtown for a game of chemistry nerd trivia. Seriously! I belong to ACS and, roughly once monthly, the local section gets together, mostly to quaff a few beers and talk trash, but also for some shared science.
This time, the science was in the form of multiple-choice questions instead of a lecture by a guest speaker. Yeah!
Not that the lectures aren't fun! Au contraire, mon frer! Even for those few times I know nothing about the specific topic, I can almost always walk away with new knowledge under my belt.
If I had a belt.
Which I don't.
But I digress.
The reason the trivia usually draws a bigger crowd and is more "fun" is this: PRIZES! Woohoo! Not just for the top two scorers, nosirree bob! The bottom two scorers also are rewarded for their efforts!
I did not receive a prize on this occassion, scoring 11 out of 25. The top two were at 19 and 16. The bottom marks were at 5 and 7. I would have had another two points if I had done as I advise my students and gone with my "gut" - ah, yes, do as I say, not as I do, y'all!
Two of the questions I answered correctly were with thanks to the bfe, either directly or indirectly. Yes, knowing a physicist who rambles on a bit can be helpful, as you do tend to pick up a trinket or two of knowledge along the way. Double magic elements are, perhaps not so surprisingly, one of those jewels the magician had tossed into my brain's path; as it was bright and shiny, the magpie in my mind had glommed onto it and tucked it away to admire at its leisure. When the question arose, the magpie dug out the treasure, granting me a correct answer to add to my score. Sah-weet! A direct nod to the bfe!
The other question I attribute to his friendship, but indirectly. How so? Well, one evening while my students were taking a test, I had no reading material with me. ACK! What to do for the next seventy minutes??? Well, there IS a Periodic Table in the room... Oh, oh, I know! Let's make names using the symbols of the elements!

And, so, that is how I passed the time, starting with my name first, of course. Fluorine-Gold-Sulfur-Titanium-Sodium. Woohoo! Christina - hmm... no direct way, but if I added NOT lines (to reverse the letters), I had Carbon-Hydrogen-NOT Iridium-Titanium-Sodium. Okay! Sandra became NOT Arsenic-Neodimium-NOT Argon. Hmmm, not sure how many NOTs should be allowed in this game. Let's substitute Radium instead of that second NOT. Okay, okay, let's try Jeff: where are the elements with a "J"? Drats, where ARE the elements with a "J"????? Well, dagnabbit. There are ZERO elements with a chemical symbol containing that letter of the alphabet.
And so, at chemistry nerd trivia, when the question arose about missing letters of the alphabet on the Periodic Table, I knew that answer immediately.
No prizes for me there, though.
So off I wandered to the expensive steak house in the next block on Bay. I had heard they had a mighty tasty bread pudding there, so I would treat myself to a comfort-food dessert at a nice place with a red piano in the lounge. The young woman at the entrance even checked with the kitchen to be sure they were not yet out of their apparently famous dish. Very nice touch!
There were no tables available in the main dining room, which meant I would sit in the lounge. Yeah! And get spoiled rotten by the waitstaff there. Yeah! All whilst being regaled by lovely music played live, and lively, on the red piano. Yeah!
An hour and a half later, I issued forth from that lounge, full of delicious bread pudding and decaf coffee. I also had a bag in hand. Leftovers??? Not hardly! I ate that whole lovely, moist, raisin-dotted treat all by myself, thank you! But I did have the forethought to order one to go for the next morning, one to share with the peace guy.