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General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: 1pLUs44 on November 06, 2008, 07:57:42 PM

Title: Need some help here!
Post by: 1pLUs44 on November 06, 2008, 07:57:42 PM
K, I'm working on a project for chemistry, everything's going fine, until I hit a snag...

I have to report on an Element, Iridium. It talks about it's "Normal Phase" anyone know what that means??

:salute
Title: Re: Need some help here!
Post by: Golfer on November 06, 2008, 08:03:40 PM
That's a solid question.  Hopefully you'll find an answer.
Title: Re: Need some help here!
Post by: 1pLUs44 on November 06, 2008, 08:06:11 PM
 :lol

I've checked all the websites listed, and then googled it (and got tons of advertisements for random crap) and even went to wikipedia.... :(
Title: Re: Need some help here!
Post by: Golfer on November 06, 2008, 08:09:34 PM
Steer clear of the useless gas on the internet.  There are times you'll feel like you're knee high in liquid wading through the bogus information that can be found on some websites.  Keep your eyes peeled though because often times the answer you're looking for is right in front of your face.

Best of luck to ya!
Title: Re: Need some help here!
Post by: MoeRon on November 06, 2008, 08:13:12 PM
Steer clear of the useless gas on the internet.  There are times you'll feel like you're knee high in liquid wading through the bogus information that can be found on some websites.  Keep your eyes peeled though because often times the answer you're looking for is right in front of your face.

Best of luck to ya!

That is some solid advice.       :aok
Title: Re: Need some help here!
Post by: caldera on November 06, 2008, 08:14:28 PM
 :rofl   that's funny.
Title: Re: Need some help here!
Post by: 1pLUs44 on November 06, 2008, 08:17:10 PM
 :lol :lol :lol :rolleyes:
Title: Re: Need some help here!
Post by: hubsonfire on November 06, 2008, 08:19:05 PM
Iridium's normal phase is the phase it's normally in. Duh.
Title: Re: Need some help here!
Post by: 1pLUs44 on November 06, 2008, 08:23:25 PM
If only I knew the phase it was normally in :noid
Title: Re: Need some help here!
Post by: Golfer on November 06, 2008, 08:29:22 PM
If only I knew the phase it was normally in :noid

Golfer-fucious say that "half of ninety who does not open his eyes will not see answer before him."
Title: Re: Need some help here!
Post by: hubsonfire on November 06, 2008, 08:29:51 PM
Repeat after me- "Would you like fries with that?"
Title: Re: Need some help here!
Post by: Golfer on November 06, 2008, 08:33:10 PM
What's the fun in just telling him the answer, hub?  The boy has to learn.  For some the key to learning to swim sank to the bottom of the pool.

The key in our example has a normal phase of Solid and is more dense than water.
Title: Re: Need some help here!
Post by: 1pLUs44 on November 06, 2008, 08:34:29 PM
You should get off the internet and read your textbooks. Then again, if you don't even know the states of matter, you're not going to pass the class anyway.

You seriously don't know about the states (phases) of matter? Solid, liquid, gas, plasma? (yeah, there are some others, but they weren't teaching that when I took HS chem, and you probably don't need to know what a supercritical fluid is.)
The normal phase of iridium is solid.

Out of curiousity, I googled "normal phase iridium". Here's the first return.
Repeat after me- "Would you like fries with that?"

Well, the problem was, I never knew what it's "normal phase" actually meant. From what I haven't learned yet, it could be it's color, smell... shoot.

But thanks sir! :salute

Everything else is pretty much easy. (and I've learned some cool facts about Iridium too)
Title: Re: Need some help here!
Post by: AKHog on November 06, 2008, 08:36:30 PM
dood get off the bbs and wiki and open up your text book!
Title: Re: Need some help here!
Post by: hubsonfire on November 06, 2008, 08:37:17 PM
The problem is that you apparently haven't ever opened a textbook.
Title: Re: Need some help here!
Post by: 1pLUs44 on November 06, 2008, 08:39:57 PM
Hmm.... did it occur to you that I did? That maybe, my text book tells me almost NOTHING about my element. I got everything else down, Family Name, Names of Family Members, Period, USes for Element, Type of Element.... etc.

I just COULD not find that one thing.  :salute
Title: Re: Need some help here!
Post by: Golfer on November 06, 2008, 08:42:43 PM
Turn your book to the first pages and look for "Table of Contents."

From there toward the end you'll typically find something called the "Index."  It will list a page number.

Go there.  We'll wait.










In alphabetical order you'll find some letters grouped together in words.  Find "N".  Look at Normal Phase.  Go to the page it tells you to go to and look for the bold word.  It's very likely it's in Chapter 1 or some other early chapter that you glazed over in a half hearted attempt at learning.
Title: Re: Need some help here!
Post by: 1pLUs44 on November 06, 2008, 08:44:10 PM
Nothing... like I said before... it isn't there.

I even double checked in the section where I thought it would be in, not there either. I've got it down from here though.
Title: Re: Need some help here!
Post by: hubsonfire on November 06, 2008, 08:45:16 PM
Repeat after me- "Would you like fries with that?"
Title: Re: Need some help here!
Post by: Golfer on November 06, 2008, 08:45:21 PM
What's the ISBN of your book?
Title: Re: Need some help here!
Post by: hubsonfire on November 06, 2008, 08:49:32 PM
What's an ISBM??? It's not on wiki???
Title: Re: Need some help here!
Post by: 1pLUs44 on November 06, 2008, 08:49:55 PM
ISBN?I have no clue what it is, but that is, I'm using one given to me by the high-school... "Modern Chemistry: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston"
Title: Re: Need some help here!
Post by: hubsonfire on November 06, 2008, 08:51:12 PM
Get off the internet and read your books, kid. Wow.
Title: Re: Need some help here!
Post by: AKHog on November 06, 2008, 08:52:17 PM
You do know wiki is authored by anyone who takes the time to write something, and by no means is accurate, right?

I not only guarantee these terms are in your text book, I would bet that your professor lectured about them. Not very often do teachers/professors ask you to write about stuff that has not been covered in class, or at least has some mention in the required reading.

I doubt your going to get a lot of help asking these types of questions online either, mostly because the people who know the answers studied hard by READING THEIR TEXT BOOKS to learn them. :eek:
Title: Re: Need some help here!
Post by: Golfer on November 06, 2008, 08:56:12 PM
ISBN?I have no clue what it is, but that is, I'm using one given to me by the high-school... "Modern Chemistry: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston"

ISBN is the "International Standard Book Number."  Your textbook has one.  What is it?
Title: Re: Need some help here!
Post by: AKHog on November 06, 2008, 08:56:44 PM
by the high-school...

Ahh now I understand. My kid sister writes book reports using wiki too, must be a high school thing.

You are going to have a rude awakening in college, assuming you go.
Title: Re: Need some help here!
Post by: 1pLUs44 on November 06, 2008, 08:56:49 PM
Lord... I've only read up on wiki for one or two of it's uses. You wanna see where I got the information from?  :huh

http://elements.wlonk.com
http://chemicalelements.com
http://webelements.com
http://pearl1.lanl.gov/periodic/default.htm
http://mii.org/periodic/MIIperiodicChart.html


Edit: ISBN - 0-03-056537-5

Title: Re: Need some help here!
Post by: AKHog on November 06, 2008, 08:58:37 PM
Lord... I've only read up on wiki for one or two of it's uses. You wanna see where I got the information from?  :huh

http://elements.wlonk.com
http://chemicalelements.com
http://webelements.com
http://pearl1.lanl.gov/periodic/default.htm
http://mii.org/periodic/MIIperiodicChart.html

And you couldn't find your answer using any of those websites?

Its the first damn result if you google it!
Title: Re: Need some help here!
Post by: 1pLUs44 on November 06, 2008, 09:00:14 PM
did you read what the websites said? It went into almost NO detail at all. I got all of my other information off of those, I couldn't find jack when it came to any use except "sometimes, it's used for anvils" and almost nothing else. Every one also said it was used for making platinum...
Title: Re: Need some help here!
Post by: AKHog on November 06, 2008, 09:04:54 PM
did you read what the websites said? It went into almost NO detail at all. I got all of my other information off of those, I couldn't find jack when it came to any use except "sometimes, it's used for anvils" and almost nothing else. Every one also said it was used for making platinum...

The websites you listed suck.

WHY DON'T YOU GET OFF THE NET AND READ YOUR TEXT BOOK???
Title: Re: Need some help here!
Post by: Banshee7 on November 06, 2008, 09:05:17 PM
You do know wiki is authored by anyone who takes the time to write something, and by no means is accurate, right?

I not only guarantee these terms are in your text book, I would bet that your professor lectured about them. Not very often do teachers/professors ask you to write about stuff that has not been covered in class, or at least has some mention in the required reading.

I doubt your going to get a lot of help asking these types of questions online either, mostly because the people who know the answers studied hard by READING THEIR TEXT BOOKS to learn them. :eek:

Yes they are!  I wrote a term paper a while back using Wikipedia.  Being ym teacher had studied this topic before, she knew an awful lot, mostly from reading books.  Needless to say, I received an 85 on that paper.  She said that I would have scored better if my paper if it had contained solid information.

#S#

Banshee7
Title: Re: Need some help here!
Post by: 1pLUs44 on November 06, 2008, 09:07:05 PM
You guys are right... I'll go to the store, pick up a 150$$ Chemistry text book on elements for 1 project... thanks!  :rolleyes:
Title: Re: Need some help here!
Post by: Golfer on November 06, 2008, 09:07:08 PM
To be fair to common sense if you knew it was a metal then that's a pretty significant clue as to the normal state.  There's only one metal that is a liquid in its normal state.
Title: Re: Need some help here!
Post by: 1pLUs44 on November 06, 2008, 09:10:59 PM
No, the definition itself confused me. :lol

I wasn't exactly sure what "Normal Phase" meant

First thing I said was "what the hell, elements have a phase??"

I agree, I shoulda looked into this more, but I was in a hurry as I got a lot of stuff to do tonight. I gotta finish up the last quarter of this, then get on to geometry.  :salute
Title: Re: Need some help here!
Post by: dkff49 on November 06, 2008, 09:11:30 PM
Now I never took HS chemistry and only briefly looked at the table for that matter. I failed the test on the periodic table due to my laziness in my studiesthen (many years ago). Just a little history of me and chemistry here.

Now here is what I found in the chemistry.com site that you posted.

Quote
Date of Discovery: 1804
Discoverer: S. Tenant
Name Origin: From the Latin word iridis (rainbow)
Uses: tip gold pens, crucible and special containers
Obtained From: gravel deposits with platinum


now in there I see uses and I notice a special line there leading to the answer you were originally asking.


Obtained From: gravel deposits with platinum now not being an expert here I would say for it to found in gravel it would most likely be a solid

of course I could be wrong
Title: Re: Need some help here!
Post by: 1pLUs44 on November 06, 2008, 09:20:51 PM
 :lol

All of that is on my paper... Like I said, I had no clue what the "Normal Phase" was...
Title: Re: Need some help here!
Post by: Banshee7 on November 06, 2008, 09:39:16 PM
:lol

All of that is on my paper... Like I said, I had no clue what the "Normal Phase" was...

and how long have you been in school???
Title: Re: Need some help here!
Post by: 1pLUs44 on November 06, 2008, 09:43:33 PM
Too long...  Chemistry is the only class I struggle with big time :(

I have one of those classes where it's impossible to pay attention the way it's layed out to be. The class average is below passing (but I'm passing!)
Title: Re: Need some help here!
Post by: vorticon on November 06, 2008, 10:25:27 PM
:lol

All of that is on my paper... Like I said, I had no clue what the "Normal Phase" was...

so how do you figure out what that means? theres a lot of ways to do it...google can manage it.... have to ask the right question though.
i figure the problem here is not that you didnt know what it meant, it was not being able to find out for yourself. you definitely have access to more than enough resources.
Title: Re: Need some help here!
Post by: 1pLUs44 on November 06, 2008, 10:46:36 PM
As to why I went here.
Title: Re: Need some help here!
Post by: vorticon on November 06, 2008, 10:51:08 PM
and you can see how well that went.
Title: Re: Need some help here!
Post by: nirvana on November 06, 2008, 11:05:30 PM
Holy cow fellas, you're beating a dead horse here.  Unless of course he procrastinated and never bothered to look at what was required or just never decided to ask the teacher, or a peer.
Title: Re: Need some help here!
Post by: AKHog on November 06, 2008, 11:08:29 PM
Unless of course he procrastinated and never bothered to look at what was required or just never decided to ask the teacher, or a peer.

Isn't that exactly what happened?
Title: Re: Need some help here!
Post by: hubsonfire on November 06, 2008, 11:09:26 PM
It's pretty obvious he never even looked until he got chastised for being lazy.
Title: Re: Need some help here!
Post by: 1pLUs44 on November 06, 2008, 11:11:42 PM
I did look. You arent sitting right behind me looking at what I've done. After 3 nights of work, it's finished, and I'm not even sure if it's that well off.

If I wanted to REALLY not do anything, I'd put something like this:
"What's Iridium? How was it found? What year? Is it a solid? Could someone type up a fancy report atleast 7 pages long? Make pictures, upload them...." and what not.

I was just confused, and I'm really planning to pass this damn class!

Edit:
 
and you can see how well that went.

Yes, I got my answer.
Title: Re: Need some help here!
Post by: nirvana on November 06, 2008, 11:13:32 PM
Never saw where it said he waited, just saying you guys can ease up on him.  Let the cards fall where they may because no child is left behind....right?  Right!

Normal phase is what phase the material is in at room temperature which is around 72 degrees fahrenheit if I remember correctly. Now you know.
Title: Re: Need some help here!
Post by: 1pLUs44 on November 06, 2008, 11:15:16 PM
I knew 3 pages back. Everything else is everyone calling me stupid. :lol

(when the class average is failing, and I'm passing, I'm pretty damn proud of myself)
Title: Re: Need some help here!
Post by: AKHog on November 06, 2008, 11:39:12 PM
I knew 3 pages back. Everything else is everyone calling me stupid. :lol

(when the class average is failing, and I'm passing, I'm pretty damn proud of myself)

We are not calling you stupid, just giving you a little needed encouragement to read the book or do some research for yourself. I don't know for a fact if this is in your text book... although I'd bet it is without even seeing what book you have, because in your very first post you say "it talks about its normal phase" in which "it" must be your book, right? But this is basic stuff that you should be learning how to research anyway, even if its not in your book, that's a big part of research papers you know?

If you type in the three words 'normal, phase, and element' into the google machine, literally the very first result tells you that "normal phase" is what phase the element is in at room temperature. If you look at the table of elements you see Iridium is a metal in which you could reasonably deduct that it would be solid at room temperature. Furthermore, if you go to webelements.com (one of the websites you said you used) and click on Iridium it says "standard state: solid...". Were you thrown off by terminology, state vs phase, or did you simply not read this far?

The bottom line is you could have spent just as much time doing the research yourself as you did making your first post. The difference is research would require thinking and reasoning, while making your first post is basically asking for the answer. Hopefully before college (where you won't be worrying about how many kids in your class are passing) you'll learn that teachers/professors don't necessarily care what the final result of a certain project is, the important part is how you got there. Or to put it another way; you won't remember all the specific details of Iridium in 10 years, but the skills you learned by researching it and learning about it now will last you for the rest of your life. The cliche is very true: asking for the answers is only cheating yourself. Sometimes it takes actually paying for your education before some people realize this.