Archive for the ‘Chemistry’ Category
Color chemistry crayons
August 27th, 2010 | 
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Extremely clever concept from Etsy seller QueInteresante: Label crayon colors with the names of the chemical compounds that produce them
As much as I like this idea, I'm obliged to point out a bit of hand-waving going on with the fine points of spectroscopy, here. One of the crayons, for instance, is apparently labeled "Barium Nitrate Ba(NO3)2 Flame," which is to say that the crayon is the same color as the flame produced when you burn barium nitrate in air, not that barium nitrate is the pigment used to produce the color in the crayon itself.
Reflectance spectrum of solid barium nitrate, left, versus emission spectrum, right.
This is understandable, really, because the chemical composition of many crayons, even if you ignore the wax binder and just focus on the coloring, is extraordinarily complicated, containing many different pigments carefully blended to achieve just the right color. Even if the formulations weren't trade secrets, it'd be doubtful if many of them could be fit on a crayon label in a legible typeface. [via adafruit]
More:
- Recycled crayon Lego minifigs and bricks
- Incredible crayon carvings for World Cup
- Crayon rockets!
- Crayola's Law: "The number of colors doubles every 28 years"
- Crayon rings
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Color chemistry crayons
Extremely clever concept from Etsy seller QueInteresante: Label crayon colors with the names of the chemical compounds that produce them
As much as I like this idea, I'm obliged to point out a bit of hand-waving going on with the fine points of spectroscopy, here. One of the crayons, for instance, is apparently labeled "Barium Nitrate Ba(NO3)2 Flame," which is to say that the crayon is the same color as the flame produced when you burn barium nitrate in air, not that barium nitrate is the pigment used to produce the color in the crayon itself.
Reflectance spectrum of solid barium nitrate, left, versus emission spectrum, right.
This is understandable, really, because the chemical composition of many crayons, even if you ignore the wax binder and just focus on the coloring, is extraordinarily complicated, containing many different pigments carefully blended to achieve just the right color. Even if the formulations weren't trade secrets, it'd be doubtful if many of them could be fit on a crayon label in a legible typeface. [via adafruit]
More:
- Recycled crayon Lego minifigs and bricks
- Incredible crayon carvings for World Cup
- Crayon rockets!
- Crayola's Law: "The number of colors doubles every 28 years"
- Crayon rings
New in the Maker Shed: Cooking for Geeks
I'm very happy to announce the availability of Jeff Potter's Cooking for Geeks in the Maker Shed. I met Jeff while he was making ice cream with liquid nitrogen at a party sometime last year. I don't think I've been more excited about a cookbook in my life. If you were ever curious about what you eat beyond the ingredients and recipe, then Cooking for Geeks is for you.
More than just a cookbook, Cooking for Geeks applies your curiosity to discovery, inspiration, and invention in the kitchen. Why is medium-rare steak so popular? Why do we bake some things at 350° F/175° C and others at 375° F/190° C? And how quickly does a pizza cook if we overclock an oven to 1,000° F/540° C? Author and cooking geek Jeff Potter (@cookingforgeeks) provides the answers and offers a unique take on recipes--from the sweet (a "mean" chocolate chip cookie) to the savory (duck confit sugo).
This book will help you:
- Initialize your kitchen and calibrate your tools
- Learn about the important reactions in cooking, such as protein denaturation, Maillard reactions, and caramelization, and how they impact the foods we cook
- Play with your food using hydrocolloids and sous vide cooking
- Gain firsthand insights from interviews with researchers, food scientists, knife experts, chefs, writers, and more, including author Harold McGee, TV personality Adam Savage, chemist Hervé This, and xkcd
"There's really no book out there like Cooking for Geeks--it's science textbook meets cookbook, written to appeal to anyone who's curious about how the details work in the kitchen," says Potter. "And it's not just for technical geeks--anyone who wants to do more than just follow a recipe will enjoy the book."
It also just so happens that Jeff was one of Today's guests on NPR's Science Friday with Ira Flatow.
In the Maker Shed
Cooking for Geeks by Jeff Potter
How-To: Make stage blood
Check out this nifty how-to video by ThScience on how to make your own fake blood, just in time for Halloween. It's really entertaining, like a chemistry lesson and a classic rock concert rolled into one. Which pretty much sums up my entire high school career.
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