







1. The only two metals that are not silvery are gold and copper

A metal is an element that forms positive ions (cations) and has metallic bonds. These particular elements have electrons that are loosely held to the atoms, and will willingly transfer them. This is the reason why metals are great electrical and thermal conductors — due to the fact that the electrons move energy.

The majority of metals’ electrons reflect colors equally, thus the sun’s light is reflected as white. Gold and copper, on the other hand, happen to absorb blue and violet light, leaving yellow light. It’s worth mentioning here that copper is also the only metal that is naturally antibacterial.

2. Water expands when it freezes, unlike other substances

Normally, when something is cold, it shrinks. That is due to the fact that temperature describes atomic vibration — the more vibration, the more area it occupies, hence expansion. Water is an exception to this rule. Although it vibrates less when it’s frozen, the ice takes up more space. That’s caused due to the strange shape of the water molecule.

If you haven’t forgotten your Chemistry 101, the water molecule looks similar to Mickey Mouse, the oxygen atom sitting at the center (the face) and two hydrogen atoms each at an angle (Mickey’s ears lol). Because of how oxygen and hydrogen bond together, the water molecule is an open structure with plenty of space. When water freezes it lets out energy because a lot of extra strong bonds can be created. But it does take up more volume. And thus, ice expands when it freezes. Another interesting fact worth bringing up here is that hot water freezes faster than cold water. Well I’ll be...

3. Glass is somehow a liquid; it just flows extremely slowly

Being neither liquid, nor solid, explaining glass is a lot more difficult than some might think. In glass, molecules still flow, but at a very low speed that it’s barely noticeable. As such, it is not sufficient to class glasses as liquid, but neither as solids also. Chemists seem to be satisfied on calling them amorphous solids— a state somewhere between those two states of matter. There’s also a thing known as metal glass – a class of materials that are three times stronger than titanium and have the elastic modulus of bone, all of that while being extremely lightweight

4. Super fluid Helium defies gravity and is able to climb on walls

A noteworthy transition comes about in the properties of liquid helium at the temperature 2.17K (very close to absolute zero), known as the “lambda point” for helium. Some of the liquid turns into a “superfluid”, a zero viscosity fluid which is going to move rapidly through any pore in the apparatus.

5. If you pour a handful of salt into a cup of water, the water level is gonna go down

When you put your foot inside a bath tub, the water level is going to immediately go up, per Achimedes’ law. However, when you add a amount of sodium chloride (salt) to an amount of water, the overall volume actually decreases by up to 2%. What’s up with that? The net reduction in observed volume is caused by solvent molecules, which become more organized in the vicinity of dissolved ions.

6. Diamond and graphite are both entirely made up of carbon and nothing else

Although created of the same stuff, the difference between a crown jewel and pencil lead is given by form. That is to say, diamond and graphite are made up differently in space making them allotropes of carbon.

7. DNA is flame retardant

Coating cotton cloth with DNA, researchers have discovered that the genetic material reduced the fabric’s flammability. When it becomes heated, the phosphate from DNA makes phosphoric acid, which replaces the water in cotton fibers as a flame-retarded residue. The bases, which consist of nitrogen, react to create ammonia, which inhibits combustion.

8. One inch of rain is equivalent to 10 inches of snow

Whenever the temperature is around 30 degrees, one inch of liquid precipitation would fall as 10 inches of snow — with the assumption that the storm is all snow.

9. A rubber tire is technically one single, giant, polymerized molecule

Certain molecules could be very big, but the majority of them are still microscopic. Not the vulcanized tire, though — it’s all one, big, damn molecule! Basically, the vulcanized tire is all made of large polymer chains that have become cross-linked with each other with covalent bonds.

10. Your vehicle’s airbags is packed with salt sodium azide, which is very toxic

However, when a collision occurs, the vehicle’s sensors trigger an electrical impulse, which in the fraction of a second dramatically elevates the temperature of the salts. These then decompose and become harmless nitrogen gas, rapidly expanding the airbag.

11. The famous chemist Glenn Seaborg was the only individual who could write his address in chemical elements

He would write: Sg, Lr, Bk, Cf, Am. That’s Seaborgium (Sg), named after Seaborg himself; Lawrencium (Lr), named after the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Berkelium (Bk), named after the city of Berkeley, the home of UC Berkeley; Californium (Cf), named after the state of California; Americium (Am), named after America.





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