[nwuytyzf] Electron subshells

Electron subshells are named s, p, d, f, then alphabetically starting from g (or f):

spdfghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

Of course, don't duplicate s and p:

spdfghijklmnoqrtuvwxyz

And j is omitted.  Reason might be because it looks too similar to i.  Reason might be because some language (Latin?) doesn't distinguish between i and j, or doesn't have j in its alphabet.  (Nowadays, however, I suspect any language that uses the Latin alphabet can print the letter j, if only to be able to print foreign words.)  Thus, we get this subset and permutation of the alphabet:

spdfghiklmnoqrtuvwxyz

There isn't agreement of what should be the names after z.

After a bit of further research, we guess it was Italian that induced skipping j.  Italian has an official alphabet (promulgated by whom?) which omits j.  However, the Italian alphabet also omits k w x y, but they are permitted as subshell names, so maybe it wasn't Italian.

Each subshell corresponds to a quantum number l (lowercase L), starting at l=0 for subshell s.

The capacity of a subshell, the maximum number of electrons it can hold, is 4*l + 2.  The capacities of the first few subshells are 2, 6, 10...  The expression 4*l+2 is the product of the 2 possible spin states for electrons (typically named -1/2 and +1/2) and the possibilities of the quantum number m ranging from -l to l (so 2*l+1 possibilities for m).

Below, we list the subshells, their quantum numbers, and their capacities.

s l=0 capacity=2
p l=1 capacity=6
d l=2 capacity=10
f l=3 capacity=14
g l=4 capacity=18
h l=5 capacity=22
i l=6 capacity=26
k l=7 capacity=30
l l=8 capacity=34
m l=9 capacity=38
n l=10 capacity=42
o l=11 capacity=46
q l=12 capacity=50
r l=13 capacity=54
t l=14 capacity=58
u l=15 capacity=62
v l=16 capacity=66
w l=17 capacity=70
x l=18 capacity=74
y l=19 capacity=78
z l=20 capacity=82

The next unnamed subshell is

l=21 capacity=86

Create a new naming scheme for subshells which is more regular and provides more useful information.  Probably name them by l or capacity or both.  Having l is useful because the Madelung rule predicts subshells fill in order of increasing n+l.

[gwhiogia] Pouring gasoline into your cell phone every night

How much gasoline would it take to charge up a 10 watt hour smartphone battery?  We'll calculate using the units program:

You have: (10 watt hour / (44 mega joule / kilogram)) / (748.9 kilogram / m^3)
You want: ml
* 1.0925114

You want: teaspoon
* 0.22165324

(assuming 100% efficiency)

One can see the allure of fuel cells.

[etrcujnj] Renaming boron, carbon, silicon, iron, and helium

Noble gases end with -on.

Boron, carbon, silicon, and iron are not noble gases, so should be renamed.  (But it is fun to pronounce them as if they rhymed with the noble gases.  Carbon sounds like "car bomb".)

First try: mechanically replace -on with -ium (keeping the British happy): borium, carbium, silicium, irium.  However, borium sounds identical to bohrium and very similar to barium.  Irium sounds very similar to iridium.  Carbium sounds similar to carbonium (carbon complex cation).  The c in silicon becomes soft, though we could work around that with silickium.

Renaming iron to ferrum, simply restoring its Latin name, would make it consistent with its element symbol Fe.

We could similarly replace -on with -um for the others: borum, carbum, silicum.

However, given the importance of carbon for life, surely we can come up with a new, fitting name for it.  Perhaps biogen.

Similarly silicon and electronics.

Helium is a noble gas but does not end in -on, so it too should be renamed.  Perhaps helion.

[amvaigpj] Breaking ionic bonds

On one hand, the ionic bond in sodium chloride is pretty hard to break, reflected in the difficulty of extracting elemental sodium from table salt.

On the other hand, water dissolves salt easily, breaking the ionic bond.

What is going on?  Probably something along the lines of, the hole of the Na+ ion gets delocalized over the Na(H2O)n complex cation, and getting to that complex from solid NaCl is not difficult.  Filling the hole, going from an ion to neutral, whether as an atom or complex, is difficult.

[wrwkwewv] Elements with similar names

manganese magnesium

ytterbium yttrium

erbium terbium ytterbium

copper copernicium

thallium thulium thorium

zinc zirconium

lutetium ruthenium

boron bohrium

titanium tin

rhodium rhenium

niobium nihonium

niobium nobelium

iron fermium

potassium calcium gallium

sodium nitrogen

platinum silver

lead molybdenum

krypton lanthanum

barium tungsten

francium gallium lutetium

ruthenium moscovium

germanium rhenium

chromium iridium

bromine osmium

radon radium actinium

caesium indium

zirconium gold

antimony tin

neptunium nihonium

actinium acetyl/acetate (latter not an element)

americium ammonium (latter not an element)

indium iminium (latter not an element)

(The reasons for the similarity between some of these might be so obscure as to be considered puzzles.)

[ezmpildy] Intragalactic versus intergalactic

The distance between galaxies seems not that much greater than the size of galaxies.  Milky Way diameter 100,000 ly.  Distance to Andromeda 2.5 million ly, so scale factor of 25.  This means (maybe) that after becoming a galactic civilization, it's not that much more difficult to then become an intergalactic civilization.  Star Trek (and others) are unrealistic in limiting themselves to just one galaxy.

Compare this with other cosmic distances:

Half-circumference of earth (farthest possible distance between any two points on earth): 20,000 km.  Minimum distance to Mars: 55 million km.  Scale factor 2750.  Going from being a planetary civilization to being an interplanetary civilization is difficult.

Size of solar system, defined by semimajor axis of Neptune's orbit: 4.5e9 km.  Distance to Alpha Centauri: 4e13 km.  Scale factor 9000.  Going from being a solar-system spanning civilization to being an interstellar civilization is difficult.

These distance ratios don't take into account the difficulty of escaping gravity wells.  Don't know if it matters.