Rikku of the Al Bhed (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
the_merriest) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomhigh2011-03-01 12:44 pm
the_merriest) wrote in fandomhigh2011-03-01 12:44 pm
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Science is Awesome!!!, Class #8, Period 3, March 1st
"Okay," Rikku said, clapping her hands together. "I hope all of you are rested from vacation. You look nice and tan. So! This week, we're gonna move from biology to chemistry.
"We're not going to get too into chemistry, because someone else here teaches chemistry and I don't want to be rude, or to cover the same ground if you're in that class, too, you know? But if we're doing an overview in science, we need to spend a couple of weeks on chemistry, because chemistry is totally where it's at."
She was passing handouts, now. "This is called the periodic table of the elements," she said. "Chemistry gets into the base components of things. Matter is made up of atoms. All matter. And atoms have a nucleus -- the bit at the center -- made up of protons and neutrons, and then there are electrons circling around outside of it. How many protons will tell you what the element is. Like, this Ru here? That's Ruthenium. Its atomic number is 44. So it's got 44 protons, and in a stable form, it's got 44 electrons, too."
"You can see there are different colors. That's because elements fall into different categories, usually based on how many electrons they have. Electrons like going into shells -- the first ring is two, and the second can hold eight, and so on out. And electrons really like having complete shells. So this next-to-last column here, these elements are one short, and that makes them grabby. They will totally pull an electron from somewhere else just to finish their shells."
She was now pointing to the first column, instead. "Which is okay, because these elements? They have one too many. If they could just drop an electron, they could go back to being inert instead of having this huge roomy shell taken up with only one electron. So they're sitting and giving away what those other column are looking for."
"What usually happens isn't that the electron just moves over from one to the other, though. It ends up being shared. Sodium, the Na here, will lend its outermost electron to Chlorine, the Cl, and the two will fuse together to form NaCl -- sodium chloride. Also known as, the salt you find in salt shakers and on French fries."
Rikku beamed at the class. "Okay, so, this has been a boring talky class, I know, but this is all necessary background, because next week, I show you what happens when those chemicals get grabby -- when some shove others out of the way, when things swap around frantically like someone's playing musical chairs. There's a reason chemistry is my favorite, and that's because it's essential in making stuff go boom."
"We're not going to get too into chemistry, because someone else here teaches chemistry and I don't want to be rude, or to cover the same ground if you're in that class, too, you know? But if we're doing an overview in science, we need to spend a couple of weeks on chemistry, because chemistry is totally where it's at."
She was passing handouts, now. "This is called the periodic table of the elements," she said. "Chemistry gets into the base components of things. Matter is made up of atoms. All matter. And atoms have a nucleus -- the bit at the center -- made up of protons and neutrons, and then there are electrons circling around outside of it. How many protons will tell you what the element is. Like, this Ru here? That's Ruthenium. Its atomic number is 44. So it's got 44 protons, and in a stable form, it's got 44 electrons, too."
"You can see there are different colors. That's because elements fall into different categories, usually based on how many electrons they have. Electrons like going into shells -- the first ring is two, and the second can hold eight, and so on out. And electrons really like having complete shells. So this next-to-last column here, these elements are one short, and that makes them grabby. They will totally pull an electron from somewhere else just to finish their shells."
She was now pointing to the first column, instead. "Which is okay, because these elements? They have one too many. If they could just drop an electron, they could go back to being inert instead of having this huge roomy shell taken up with only one electron. So they're sitting and giving away what those other column are looking for."
"What usually happens isn't that the electron just moves over from one to the other, though. It ends up being shared. Sodium, the Na here, will lend its outermost electron to Chlorine, the Cl, and the two will fuse together to form NaCl -- sodium chloride. Also known as, the salt you find in salt shakers and on French fries."
Rikku beamed at the class. "Okay, so, this has been a boring talky class, I know, but this is all necessary background, because next week, I show you what happens when those chemicals get grabby -- when some shove others out of the way, when things swap around frantically like someone's playing musical chairs. There's a reason chemistry is my favorite, and that's because it's essential in making stuff go boom."
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