Questions tagged [chemistry]
For questions about the study of chemical reactions, dynamics and related phenomena.
67
questions
3
votes
3answers
383 views
Did C.S Peirce make any noteworthy contributions to physics or chemistry?
According to this article
Peirce was the first to experimentally tie a unit, the meter, to an
absolute standard, the wavelength of a spectral line
Did C.S Peirce make any other noteworthy ...
0
votes
0answers
50 views
Fritz Haber and nitrogen fixing: Was there a movement to increase the population?
I read a dramatic statistic something like 3 out of 5 living humans owe their existence to food that could be grown due to Haber's work. But was there a time when anyone said, we need to be able to ...
3
votes
0answers
52 views
Was the wide use of mercury in experiments in the 19th century related to alchemy?
We know that Newton's hair samples showed high level of mercury and of course he used mercury like crazy in his alchemy experiments (as did many/all alchemists not just in the west but also China) and ...
4
votes
1answer
100 views
Was Joseph Priestley “isolated”
Joseph Priestley is often said to have discovered Oxygen, or not due to calling it Dephlogisticated air - depending on one's preference. However, regardless of this, it is often said in popular ...
10
votes
1answer
1k views
Who was the first to weigh chemical reaction products?
It is said that Lavoisier and Lomonosov both discovered that the cumulated mass of reactants is conserved. My question is simple: who (and when) started weighing chemical products before and after ...
5
votes
1answer
676 views
When did stoichiometry begin to be taught in U.S. high schools?
Stoichiometry, "the quantitative relationship between two or more substances especially in processes involving physical or chemical change" (Merriam-Webster), is currently a major part of the U.S. ...
1
vote
1answer
121 views
Hydrogen electrode and its electrode potential
In electrochemistry, all electrode potentials are quoted with reference to the standard hydrogen electrode. Its value is assigned to be 0 volts. I have been searching for the origin of this convention ...
7
votes
0answers
150 views
How did early physicists experimentally assign electronic transitions in atoms?
The spectrum of hydrogen was very well studied by the mid-19th century. However, if one were doing experimental spectroscopy for more complex atoms, one would see plenty of spectral lines in the ...
1
vote
0answers
97 views
Is it a historical coincidence that relative atomic weights by chemical methods and mass spectrometry are very close?
The concept of relative atomic weight originated from measuring the combining weight of hydrogen with a certain element. In the simplification process H was taken as unity (18th, 19th and 20th century)...
2
votes
1answer
553 views
How did the early chemists determine the atomic weight of hydrogen?
In early history, the relative atomic weight of hydrogen was assigned as 1 (exactly) and all other elements were compared against hydrogen. What is difficult to find who determined the absolute atomic ...
3
votes
2answers
378 views
How did the early chemists make a connection between gram formula weight with 1 mole and Avogadro's number?
According to one historian Mustafa Sarikaya's article in Foundations of Chemistry DOI 10.1007/s10698-011-9128-7, the mole concept was introduced to chemistry earlier than Avogadroās number. The mole ...
1
vote
1answer
138 views
Was the value of the mole invented or discovered in chemistry?
For example, $\pi$ is not an invention, it is a discovery which was natural, that is ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. But when we define a meter it is not a natural value it is ...
1
vote
1answer
2k views
Origins of molecular orbital diagrams?
Does anyone remember who proposed molecular diagrams for simple molecules as taught today in most general chemistry texts? I cannot access Hund's original article, however, Mulliken's early articles ...
1
vote
0answers
57 views
In the old days, how did chemists trap and measure gases?
The old days being roughly 1600 - 1850, the time when chemistry and the nature of the elements was being investigated empirically.
For example, hydrogen gas was discovered by Robert Boyle in 1671 ...
5
votes
1answer
146 views
What inspired Nicholson to break water into hydrogen and oxygen with electricity?
It seems a bit of a stretch to go from a battery to electrolysis but this fellow appears to have thought of it only a few weeks after Volta invented the "pile" battery.
I am wondering if he knew ...
7
votes
3answers
124 views
What were the early uses of differential equations for modeling chemical reactions?
What are some of the original examples of uses of differential equations for modeling and analyzing chemical reactions, particularly those relevant to biochemistry, involving proteins and enzymes? ...
4
votes
1answer
156 views
What was Pauling's Claim about Vitamin C
As I understand it after winning two (un-shared) Nobel prizes Linus Pauling began work which eventually had him recommending large amounts of vitamin C to all and sundry.
When another scientist was ...
3
votes
1answer
52 views
Are there any records of the history for the development of speculum alloy?
I am curious if anyone has seen any records on how this alloy was first developed or perhaps accidentally discovered?
One could ask a similar question for any alloy but since this is peculiar in ...
5
votes
1answer
74 views
When did people first become concerned about mercury in fish?
I can't find any information about the history of mercury in fish as a public health concern. When was it first recognized that fish contain higher levels of mercury than land animals? How long have ...
3
votes
1answer
115 views
Was carbon dioxide also called carbonic acid historically?
I am reading the classic paper by Thomas Andrews, in which he discovered the critical point.
The gas he used in his experiments is called by him 'carbonic acid'. By its critical temperature being 31....
11
votes
5answers
515 views
Has science fiction ever caused scientists to do real research?
Has science fiction ever caused scientists to do real research?
Science fiction here means fiction that tries to explain things in the world rather than speculate about the future or unexplorable ...
2
votes
1answer
269 views
Earliest known usage of letter gamma “Ī” for reducible representation in group theory
Does any know the earliest known usage of the Greek letter gamma for showing a reducible representation of a group? This symbolism is commonly used in character tables in chemical applications of ...
1
vote
0answers
37 views
What is the first instance in which Mendeleev published a long-form table as compared with his 8-column table of 1869?
Mendeleev is famous for having published his first periodic table in 1869. This was a short-form or 8-column table.
He also published a number of 18 column periodic tables. I am asking for ...
4
votes
3answers
617 views
Looking for books on the history of chemistry?
I'm looking for good books on history of chemistry and chemical methodology. There appear to be surprisingly few available on the market based on my own 'research' (just googling and phrase-searching ...
6
votes
1answer
293 views
Before the discovery of the neutron, how did scientists explain standard atomic weights?
The neutron was predicted in 1920 and discovered 12 years later. Before this time, how did scientists explain standard atomic weights?
For example, Lithium has a standard atomic weight of about 6.9 ...
0
votes
0answers
52 views
How common were death and mutilation among chemists 1750-1950?
Several famous chemists were blown up, poisoned, blinded, mutilated or got lethally sick by radiation. Are these isolated anecdotes or was researching chemistry a truly dangerous job during the period ...
5
votes
2answers
1k views
Why is Mendeleev credited with the discovery of the periodic table much more often than Meyer?
The question "Why do we learn little about Mendeleev when compared to other science figures?" let me ask: Why do we learn next to nothing about Julius Lothar Meyer (1830-1895) who in parallel to ...
7
votes
2answers
239 views
Why do we learn little about Mendeleev when compared to other science figures?
This is not a question about chemistry as a science, but as a school discipline.
Why is it that Mendeleev as a person is barely mentioned in chemistry courses compared to all the others, like Coulomb, ...
0
votes
0answers
93 views
How has it been discovered that water consists of acid and base?
The chemical composition of water was discovered about 1784, but when has it been discovered that it is also composed of acid and base?
2
votes
1answer
170 views
Why not proton volt instead of $eV$?
Why is eV used instead of proton V even if they would
give the same value?
I have this view: from electrochemistry's Faraday's law,
scientists first calculated the charge of an electron. Then,
they ...
3
votes
2answers
133 views
Most known teachers of specific branch of Science
After acquainting myself with the works of Richard Feynman in Physics: " The Feynman Lectures on Physics" and partially with the works of Donald Knuth in Programming: "The Art of Computer Programming",...
2
votes
2answers
480 views
What is the etymology of lower case p as the operator for the negative of the common logarithm?
In high school we were taught that the formula for pH is the negative of the common logarithm of hydrogen ion concentration: pH = -log[H+].
It wasn't until I took organic chemistry that the "acid ...
4
votes
1answer
550 views
Different sign conventions in thermodynamics different for physics and chemistry
Why are the sign conventions of work done in thermodynamics different for physics and chemistry?
5
votes
2answers
1k views
Why Saytzeff and Zaitsev Rules are named differently?
Saytzeff and Zaitsev rules are the same thing.Then why are they named differently?Some books favour to use Saytzeff while some prefer Zaitsev.Why are different names used for the same thing?
Thanks ...
5
votes
0answers
141 views
How could John Dalton hypothesised his atomic theory based on his experimental observations?
The key of this question is not simply stating the content of his theory, but telling what results or principles he had at that time and how could they lead to the theory. He was as such the first ...
4
votes
1answer
80 views
Who is Hræðraford, the “learned clerk” “writing in modern chemical Latin”?
Truesdell, C. Rational Thermodynamics. New York, NY: Springer New York, 1984. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-5206-1, p. 41 says:
ā¦ in the numerous papers and books whose titles and topics ...
2
votes
0answers
76 views
What is the difference between chemico-chemists and physico-chemists according to Van't Hoff?
āWhereas the chemico-chemists always find in industry a beautiful field of gold-laden soil, the physico-chemists stand somewhat farther off, especially those who seek only the greatest dilution, for ...
0
votes
1answer
185 views
Who did create the notions of acid, base, and salt first?
Who did create the notions of acid, base, and salt first?
Many chemists had mentioned these 3 terms before Svante Arrhenius defined them in 1884. For example, Antoine Lavoisier mentioned the notions ...
6
votes
1answer
942 views
What is the origin of “ortho-,” “meta-,” “para-,” in chemistry?
The prefix "ortho-" means straight or right; "meta-" means beyond or after; "para-" means beside or along. How, then, did ortho-, meta- and para- come to refer to the carbon positions one, two, and ...
3
votes
1answer
809 views
What ever happened to the methylphenidate synthesiser and his family?
Leandro Panizzon 1 2 3 synthesised methylphenidate or something like that back in 1944. Ritalin is named after his wife Rita.
He doesn't seem to have a Wikipedia page or anything. What happened to ...
5
votes
1answer
936 views
How did chemists figure out atomic weights, when hydrogen, etc., were first discovered?
Henry Cavendish isolated hydrogen in 1766, but I want to know if he knew the gas was actually $H_2$ instead of just a plain $H$ gas.
This would make a major difference in the atomic weights, which ...
2
votes
0answers
120 views
How did the theories of Lavoisier, Davy, Arrhenius then Bronsted & Lowry come about?
What scientific experimentations, methods of thinking, ideas and so forth necessitate each individual definition of their acids / bases?
8
votes
2answers
1k views
Was Thomson's model of Plum Pudding widely accepted as a model of atom?
Was this model widely accepted in the time as a model for the atom? or was it just a model between many alternatives?
9
votes
1answer
970 views
Dmitri Mendeleev's Periodic Table
Dmitri Mendeleev arranged his first periodic table according to the number of protons and valency electrons. How did he, and others of his age, know of these subatomic particles and electron shell ...
5
votes
2answers
1k views
How was the composition and structure of water determined?
Water is a pretty basic molecule that people used since early science. What were the steps in figuring out what water is made of and what is its structure?
13
votes
2answers
992 views
Did anybody question the indivisibility of the atom because there were “too many” elements?
The realisation that the atom was divisible, and thus that elements were not the "fundamental building blocks" arguably began around 1897 with J. J. Thomson's discovery of the electron and proceeded ...
8
votes
1answer
229 views
History of Coagulation of Milk by Short Waves
In 1968 NASA, through the assistance of the Israel Program for Scientific Translation, translated from Russian the 1964 book "The Earth in the Universe", with chapters written by top Soviet scientists....
5
votes
1answer
576 views
Were there alternative names for electron orbitals?
Electrons orbits are referred to as s, p, d, and f, then alphabetically. These stand for sharp, principal, diffuse and fundamental respectively (or maybe the German translations).
Was any other ...
5
votes
1answer
435 views
Modern usage of alchemical symbols
As far as I know, not many (if any) alchemical symbols have survived in modern nomenclature of science, either in chemistry or any other. I think $\LaTeX$ doesn't even support most of them! I know ...
4
votes
1answer
180 views
What are some of the most important scientific works done that have not received a Nobel prize? [closed]
Many of the 'famous' papers in the scientific community have resulted in Nobel prizes, but certainly that represents only a small fraction of notably important papers throughout scientific history. ...
