Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Why I love Chemistry…


Liquid tungsten is so hot, if you dropped it into a lava flow, the lava would freeze the tungsten.

Chlorine Trifluoride is another extremely interesting (and dangerous) chemical I read about today. Here's what John Clarke says about it in his book "Ignition!"
"It is extremely toxic, but that's the least of the problem. It burns rapidly with every known fuel, and no delay in ignition has ever been measured. It also burns with such things as cloth, wood, asbestos, sand, water — and, not to mention, human beings. 
And did I mention that when added to water, it produces hydrochloric acid and hydrofluoric acid?
For dealing with this chemical, I always recommend a good pair of running shoes."

Dioxygen difluoride (O2F2) is so volatile that it makes other substances ignite and explode at any temperature hotter than -185 degree Celsius (Yes, that's 185 degrees BELOW zero). 
It can literally make ice catch fire. 
It's definitely one of those things I wouldn't want to mess with.



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