Recent content by mrjeffy321

Soak uncoated steel wool in common chlorine bleach (like Clorox bleach). The sodium hypochlorite in the bleach will oxidize the iron in the steel wool to iron(III) oxide, which will settle as a fine, red powder at the bottom of the container. You could also use iron nails as your iron source...

Not only did we have a required junior/senior level optics course at my undergrad, but we also had a required freshman introductory course that covered optics for about 70% of the semester. I think the subject mater is quite useful, and something that a physics major should know, but perhaps it...

It is not the size that is important, really, but the quality of the crystal. Defects in the crystal are what scatter the light. Imagine you had a big piece of glass that is perfectly clear (and colorless). Now imagine that you crack the glass in many places, sort of like the cracks in the...

Manganese dioxide (MnO2), from batteries, can react with hydrochloric acid (HCl) to produce chlorine gas (Cl2) and manganese chloride (MnCl2). In its hydrated form, manganese chloride tetrahydrate (MnCl2 * 4 H2O) is pink. Perhaps when one has a very concentrated solution of MnCl2 it is...

Where did you get the carbon for the electrodes? I presume you scavenged it from somewhere, which could hint at what the contamination might be.

Sodium hydroxide is highly soluble in water; it will all remain in solution (and also react with the Cl2 that you are producing, none will precipitate out. How much of that powder do you get? Enough to do a couple of experiments on it? You could try filtering it out and drying it. Then see...

The cause of the color change observed in the video is very different from the situation you are describing. In the case of the video, the color change is easily explained by the oxidation of the iron (stainless steel spoons) into Fe+2 (aq) ions in solution. But you claim that you are not...

You say that you are using carbon [graphite] electrodes for both the anode (+) and cathode (-) of you cell. What current are you passing through the cell? How are the electrodes holding up? Is the anode disintegrating at all? Fine graphite particles should be flaking off the anode and making...

Do not over complicate it. Using bleach and steel wool is a quick, easy, and relatively safe way to make iron oxide (“rust”). Make sure you use the right type of bleach. You want to use chlorine bleach (bleach that contains sodium hypochlorite, NaOCl), “Clorox Bleach”. Make sure you use...

The letter of recommendation should come from the professor, not the graduate student (or at least, nominally it should be from the professor). The professor's letter will carry much more weight than one from a grad student, plus he/she in all likelihood has much more experience writing them...

That is true, not all steel wools are created equal. Ideally you want just pure iron, in as fine of a particle size as you can get (in order to speed up the reaction), and steel wool just happens to be a convenient approximation this. You do not want any soaps or anti-rust coatings on the...

This reaction absolutely does work. 2 Fe + 3 NaOCl --> Fe2O3 + NaCl Make sure that you are using enough bleach to fully oxidize all of the steel wool. When it is fully oxidized there will be no little metal fibers from the steel wool left over, it will all turn into a reddish-brown powder...

Yes, I spent a summer working / researching at Penn State in the Physics department. I had every intension of staying there much longer but some unusual (and unrelated) circumstances came up which caused me to move. I think the summer is the best time I think since the weather is so pleasant...

Personally, I would choose Penn State. State College, PA is a wonderful place to spend a summer (I would know), it has an excellent materials science program (apparently is a better than U Penn., according to the ranking), and they are giving you a much greater financial package. I do not...

There are numerous examples of people who experiment at home on their own and discover something significant (like in the Charles Hall case and refining aluminum), or whose experimentation gave them an early start in science and who later went onto become someone important in the science/tech...