Ukrainian Chemist

Introduction At the organic chemistry lecture sometimes this question arises: how to find out how many isomers does have an open-chain alkane  C n H 2n+2 ? The question has no simple answer. Despite some youtube chemistry teachers offering a ready magic formula, the fact is that the number of isomers has be count separately for each n . In practice, this means generating every possible isomer for a given number of C-atoms. Please refer to the proffesional sources if you need the specific details covering this issue [1,2]. The Goal I wanted to design a simple and comprehensible algorithm for the demonstration purposes. The algorithm should allow counting all possible alkane isomers and could be recreated, modified and employed by users without a deep knowledge of the mathematical sciences. To simplify the task, the stereoisomers will be ignored. The Method  In order to calculate all combination of the isomers, I have built the logical scheme shown at the flowchart (Fig. 1) and ...

An eggshell consists mainly of calcium carbonate, which makes up to 97% of the total eggshell mass. The rest are the proteins, which form a network stabilizing the structure of an eggshell. An average eggshell weighs appr. 6 g, the thickness of it varies between 240 and 420 mkm. Because the eggshell is so thin, it can be relatively easily heated above 800°C — the temperatures, at which the decomposition of CaCO3 occurs with a reasonably fast rate. Here I propose a rapid and a simple experiment demonstrating the calcination (decomposition) of the eggshell calcium carbonate into calcium oxide (reaction scheme follows). Experimental procedure The shells of chicken eggs were thoroughly cleaned, the membrane being mechanically removed off the inner side of the shell.  Attention! Wear safety goggles when you heat eggshells, since they tend to crack in the flame and little pieces may suddenly jump off and injure your eyes. A piece of an eggshell about 4–9 cm^2 was held by tweezers and its...