Before you read this, I suggest you read posts 16.21 and 18.10. The picture shows a sinusoidal water wave (in blue) of amplitude A and wavelength λ (post 18.10) travelling along a straight channel at an instant in time, t. The wave is formed by water in the layer between the lines (that lie in… Continue reading 19.8 Wave energy

Before you read this, I suggest that you read posts 19.5 and 19.6. In post 19.5, we saw that positive charges move spontaneously from hydrogen ions (H+) to zinc atoms because a zinc atom is at a lower electrical potential (post 17.44) than a hydrogen atom. As a result, a zinc atom is converted into… Continue reading 19.7 Redox potentials

Before you read this, I suggest you read posts 16.39, 17.44 and 19.5. The word “cell” in this post means an electrical cell and not a biological cell, as described in post 16.18; so the word “cell” is another possible source of the confusion described in post 17.14. In post 19.5, we saw that when… Continue reading 19.6 Cells and batteries

Before you read this, I suggest you read posts 16.33 and 16.39. When iron rusts, it reacts (post 16.33) with oxygen molecules (post 16.30) to form a mixture of iron (II) ions (Fe2+), iron (III) ions (Fe3+) and oxide ions (O2-). To find out more about ions, see post 16.39. The resulting mixture is sometimes… Continue reading 19.5 Oxidation and reduction

We are frequently told about the importance of reading labels on food products to find out exactly what is hidden in them. This is supposed to ensure that we don’t exceed sensible limits for sugar, salt, fat, alcohol or whatever. So, I started by reading the label on a bottle of fizzy mineral water. The… Continue reading 19.4 Dietary information – reading the label

Before you read this post, I suggest that you read posts 18.28 and 19.2. In post 18.28, we saw how to use the ideal gas equation to predict the osmotic pressure, π, from its molarity, CM (post 17.48). The ideal gas equation predicts that the osmotic pressure could be calculated using the equation π =… Continue reading 19.3 Real solutions

Before you read this, I suggest you read post 18.25. In post 18.25, we saw that for most gases, under most conditions, the pressure, p, and volume, V, of n moles (post 17.48) a gas were related to its temperature, T (on the Kelvin scale, post 16.34) by the equation pV = nRT where R… Continue reading 19.2 Real gases

Water often has ions dissolved in it: post 16.39 explains why and gives more information on ions. Two common ions found in drinking water are calcium ions (Ca2+) and magnesium ions (Mg2+). When these ions interact with soap, they form a soft, insoluble deposit called scum. Water that forms scum, in this way, is called… Continue reading 19.1 Hard water

Before you read this, I suggest that you read posts 16.34, 16.35 and 18.29. In post 16.34, we noted that heat flows spontaneously from a hot object to a cold object. This process is shown in the picture above, where the temperature T1 is greater than the temperature T2, and the arrow shows the direction… Continue reading 18.30 Heat pumps

Before you read this, I suggest you read post 18.27. The picture above is almost the same as the second picture in post 18.27; a membrane (green) separates water molecules (blue) from a solution of big molecules (red) in water. The big molecules are too big to pass through the pores of the membrane. The… Continue reading 18.29 Reverse osmosis