Mumbles Posted September 12, 2008 Posted September 12, 2008 I think there is a deficiency in the chemistry program here. Never had to take linear algebra, never seen an eigenfunction, value, or state. I had a very VERY brief introduction to it in high school in an advanced saturday morning physics program I was in. Yes, school on a saturday for no credit. I know, but there's no need to be jealous. Oddly enough, never had to take a calculus class with differential equations, only through calc 2. My calc 2 professor, being a 196 year old gnome, stoped the class about 6 chapters short because he was too busy pleasuring himself to obscure proofs and making us recite the proofs on the exams. Nothing practical, and we got a note card. So there wasn't even an intro to diff eq. Anyway, we're using Atkins. For thermo we used Silbey. At the end of the semester we got to read a chapter on the same subject matter in 3 books. Silbey, Atkins, and Levine I think. For extra credit we had to write a page or so comparing and contrasting them, and stating which we liked best. I liked Atkins the best of the three. It was really easy to understand with how it was worded. The proofs were straight forward with explanations of why the steps were done, and easy to understand. Levine was really math based, had terrible wording, hard to read, and the proofs were hard to follow. Silbey was more straight forward in the wording, more science jargon, less flowery than Atkins. Proofs were also pretty easy to understand. Atkins is in color too, so the diagrams are really pretty and easier to discern from the normal series of dots, dashes, and various shades of grey on the phase diagram with 18 phases.
flying fish Posted September 13, 2008 Posted September 13, 2008 The linear algebra that we have used in quantum hasn't been complicated, but it definetely helps to understand the relationship between operators, eigenvalues and eigenvectors. My school used to require Boundary Value Problems (an introduction to PDE's with boundary conditions) as one of the math pre-recs, but they reduced it to just an Ordinary DE course (in addition to linear algebra). Our course is primarily for physics majors though, so it might be a little more theoretical/ math intensive. In my classical mechanics course, we used Taylor, which was pretty good, older text. Written in sort of an informal, slightly off-beat style. Now it seems like Griffiths tried to replicate his style of text-book writing but with only marginal success. Color would have been nice...but no, it had to be black and white. Also, pages are literally falling out due to the cheap binding method and I never abused the book (well, maybe a little hehe). I have Thermo next term - that should be interesting. It is kind of funny - I considered taking Organic Chem...especially since I had worked with the professor..who had a great sense of humor...and thought he would be a fun guy to learn from. I later found out from some chem/biochem people that this would have been a horrible idea. Apparently the first day he tells them "you WILL cry on my exam" and the students all agree with that statement as soon as an exam has been issued. If I take another chem class before I graduate it will probably be Colloid science...just for kicks and giggles. Any reason why this wouldn't be a good choice of chemistry elective?
crazyboy25 Posted September 14, 2008 Posted September 14, 2008 (edited) Strangely I prefer the taste of distilled water to regular water. Also everything in my garage is rusting, it started rusting right after my fire but we cleaned it up and nothing rusted for a good few months then just recently everything started rusting up again. Any ideas? I have sulfuric acid and had HCl till I moved it to the shed. Maybe dust from the fire got dislodged? Good news is my dad wants to empty out the garage and clean all the tools and give me my own place to work so I have my own workbench and room for my chems and equipment. Edited September 14, 2008 by crazyboy25
asilentbob Posted September 14, 2008 Posted September 14, 2008 Traces of HCl vapors will rust shit like crazy. It sucks... the bain of solvent cans... In other news I got a 12v 33Ah deep cycle battery today for my portable power project. I'm holding off on putting it all together for a short while just to avoid any anguish caused by installing switches now, then realizing poor placement later. BUT it shouldn't be much longer now. I'm striving to force myself to not get much more unless I sell old shit I never use to make up the money for it.... But man... if I found like $150 on the street tomorrow... I could really make this thing even more bad-assly versatile with a nice digital V/A/Ah/Wh meter, digital variable step up/down 3-28v outputdc-dc converter good to 3A with led readout, higher quality solar charge controller, and give everything matching high-quality interchangeable power plugs...
marks265 Posted September 14, 2008 Posted September 14, 2008 (edited) Here is a link from NASA to check out. http://www.greatdanepro.com/Blue%20Bueaty/index.htm enjoy! Edited September 14, 2008 by marks265
Pyrohawk Posted September 15, 2008 Posted September 15, 2008 So this just plain sucks.... I am typing by candlelight because my power is out. In fact 680,000 people's power is out and it could take up to 3 days for them to get it back on!! I am supposed to move into my new apartment in Columbus tomorrow but I dunno... I can't even pack its so freaking dark!
Richtee Posted September 15, 2008 Posted September 15, 2008 So this just plain sucks.... I am typing by candlelight because my power is out. In fact 680,000 people's power is out and it could take up to 3 days for them to get it back on!! I am supposed to move into my new apartment in Columbus tomorrow but I dunno... I can't even pack its so freaking dark!Columbus dosen't have electricity yet. Altho they DID get shocked last night hehehe...
crazyboy25 Posted September 15, 2008 Posted September 15, 2008 So this just plain sucks.... I am typing by candlelight because my power is out. In fact 680,000 people's power is out and it could take up to 3 days for them to get it back on!! I am supposed to move into my new apartment in Columbus tomorrow but I dunno... I can't even pack its so freaking dark! How does your computer work in a blackout?
optimus Posted September 15, 2008 Posted September 15, 2008 Just found out I'm playing a gig with these guys in a few weeks: Should be entertaining!
Mumbles Posted September 15, 2008 Posted September 15, 2008 I've seen them live a few times. I was never all that impressed, but it was usually far too early in the day for me to really be into it. I've seen worse though.
Richtee Posted September 15, 2008 Posted September 15, 2008 Just found out I'm playing a gig with these guys in a few weeks: Should be entertaining!Ahh Angry White Men. I'm too old and on the edge for that. I miss good old Judas and the like. But tear it up.
asilentbob Posted September 16, 2008 Posted September 16, 2008 Ahhh sweet irony... My big bad battery was $80 with a 1 year warranty... and I just found some guy is selling 4 of them with a year of light use for $80...
Richtee Posted September 16, 2008 Posted September 16, 2008 Ahhh sweet irony... My big bad battery was $80 with a 1 year warranty... and I just found some guy is selling 4 of them with a year of light use for $80... I know the feeling. My Grandpa would have said "Boy, some days it's chicken, some days feathers". I miss him.
optimus Posted September 16, 2008 Posted September 16, 2008 Ahh Angry White Men. I'm too old and on the edge for that. I miss good old Judas and the like. But tear it up. Yes they do seem a little angry Didn't realise they were still around... not sure about the new vocalist really - a tad lame. Gotta love that old WCW video for rising though...
tentacles Posted September 18, 2008 Posted September 18, 2008 I know this to be a stupid question, and I tried some searching, can't seem to find an answer. When I milled some KNO3 the other day, it was right after I emptied out some charcoal I'd just milled. Trick is, that charcoal was slightly damp from living outside for a few months. I uncaked the 'coal, and emptied the jar, scraped it out etc. Put in my KNO3 which proceeded to cake like a sumbitch. I removed the KNO3, dried it in the oven for about 2 1/2 hours at 225 (last 45 mins at 250). It FELT dry, but it caked up again, and I dried the jar completely before I reloaded it. I remilled the charcoal just before trying the KNO3, and it's some damned good airfloat charcoal now. Do I need anticake, am I overloading my jar maybe? I guess 5lbs at a time might be a bit ambitious for my jar until I get the rest of that media cut up.
FrankRizzo Posted September 18, 2008 Posted September 18, 2008 Did you also dry the charcoal before milling again? Is there water still soaked into the wood caps maybe?
tentacles Posted September 18, 2008 Posted September 18, 2008 The charcoal I also dried (though not in the oven) and milled it very successfully before I put the KNO3 in again. Cake city! Not hard clumps, soft easily breakable clumps... I'm thinking I'll try milling half of it at a time tommorow.
optimus Posted September 18, 2008 Posted September 18, 2008 Have added a few more pyrotechnic-related photos to my flickr recently; take a look if you have a spare minute: http://flickr.com/photos/7957394@N03/sets/72157600120137781/
Mumbles Posted September 18, 2008 Posted September 18, 2008 I often have that problem. No matter what I do the KNO3 always cakes. I've just accepted it. I screen everything anyway, and takes care of it. I am thinking about running a large scale KNO3 recrystallization soon. My KNO3 isn't quite as pure as I would hope for, so I am going to recrystallize 10 or 20 pounds at a time for use in lift and break. I did it before on a small scale, and the BP seemed to burn a little faster and a little cleaner. It might just be because my KNO3 is naturally a little wet, and I did dry the recrystallized stuff.
tentacles Posted September 18, 2008 Posted September 18, 2008 Well I've got it in the oven at the moment, actually I forgot to turn the oven off when I left. It's set at 150C/300F so it should be fine. Having said that, I put about half of it in the jar earlier and it caked like crazy in there. So I took the jar back home, dried out the bottom (The "problem area") with my hot air gun, sanded it smooth and put a new coat of "finish" on it. I've been using my ABS glue for finish, it seems to hold up pretty well. Refinished the jar lid too, I'm seriously considering replacing the MDF with some nylon or HDPE or something. Chop up a cutting board or some shit. That KNO3 will *definitely* be dry when I get home. I'll probably have my wife turn the oven off when she gets home. If only the damn timer worked on the oven, I could have set it for 3-4 hours. I poked holes down into the stuff so it'd dry down to the bottom, although I seriously doubt that will be a problem with how long it's been running.
Pretty green flame Posted September 19, 2008 Posted September 19, 2008 Quick question, I bought l of MEK at the hardware store, the problem is it smell just like Acetone How does MEK usually smell, anything like Acetone? I've never handeled MEK before so I don't really know
Bonny Posted September 19, 2008 Posted September 19, 2008 Quick question, I bought l of MEK at the hardware store, the problem is it smell just like Acetone How does MEK usually smell, anything like Acetone? I've never handeled MEK before so I don't really know I would imagine they would smell similar as they are both ketones I think. See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetonehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butanone
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