World Teachers' Day

How would you describe your Chemistry teacher? Inspirational? Boring? Caring? A bully? Compassionate? Dedicated? Disinterested?
How would your Chemistry teacher describe you?
In common with all your other teachers, your Chemistry teacher's greatest desire is to inspire you and to help you achieve success in your studies. (Yes, I am serious!)
Your Chemistry teacher will be disappointed when you don't attempt your homework, hand in your lab reports and assessments on time, and when you are distracted in class or lack concentration. Your teacher will try to help you, sometimes this might feel like a teacher "picking on you", harassing you or bullying you, but your teacher just wants to get you focused and trying to do the work required to the best of your ability.
Teachers get frustrated when capable students don't submit work that reflects their abilities, and when students try to "look up" or "find" the answer rather than think through a problem and arrive at a solution through their own efforts. Teachers get excited when students "get it", when they achieve results better than expected, when they display interest, and when they try to solve problems through their own efforts (especially when the student finds the work difficult).
Teachers will make allowances for student "mis"-behaviour when they know you are not feeling well or are feeling stressed, when assessments are due, during exams, etc. But do you make similar allowances for your teacher's "mis"-behaviour ... yes... teachers get sick and stressed too (they are only human after all)! Assessments and exams to mark, reports to write, lessons to plan, whole teaching programs to revise and/or write, not to mention thinking about new ways to present concepts to students who have failed to understand them.
You are probably at school because you "need to be", you view it as a stepping-stone to your career goal or future aspirations. Have you ever wondered why your teacher is at school?
Your Chemistry teacher is at school because they want to share their love of Chemistry with you and to help you understand Chemistry so that you will also enjoy it and achieve the best results you can.

On International Teachers' Day, take a moment to think about how your Chemistry teacher might see you as a student, and, think about how you might help your teacher to help you.

International "World Teachers' Day" is held annually on the 5^th October .... unless you are in Australia where this date usually falls in the school holidays, so the Australian version of "Teachers' Day" is held on the last Friday in October (25^th October 2019).

Naming Nitriles

How do you name a molecule like H-C≡N?
If you are an inorganic chemist you might call it:

• hydrogen cyanide (hydrogen name)
• hydridonitridocarbon (additive name)
• methylidyneazane (substitutive name)

If you are an organic chemist you might call it:

• hydrogen cyanide (functional class name)
• formonitrile (preferred IUPAC name)
• methanenitrile (substitutive name) 

The CN functional group at the end of a hydrocarbon chain results in a molecule that belongs to a class of organic compounds called nitriles. All nitriles contain a terminal CN group known as the cyano functional group.
AUS-e-TUTE has a new tutorial, game and test to help our members understand and apply IUPAC naming rules to nitriles. Members should log-in to use these new resources.

If you are not a member of AUS-e-TUTE you can access a "free-to-view" tutorial on naming nitriles at https://www.ausetute.com.au/namnitrile.html

Hydrogen Emission Spectrum

How many lines are in the emission spectrum of hydrogen?
Where do these lines come from?
What are the Lyman, Balmer, Paschen, Brackett, Pfund and Humphreys Series?
Find the answers to these questions and more in AUS-e-TUTE's new hydrogen emission spectrum resources.
AUS-e-TUTE Members should log-in to access the new tutorial, game, test and exam (with worked solutions of course!)
If you are not an AUS-e-TUTE member you can access a "free-to-view" Hydrogen Emission Spectrum tutorial at https://www.ausetute.com.au/hspectrum.html

Periodic Table Challenge

 2019 is the International Year of the Periodic Table and IUPAC has a game you can play online!
Here is the link https://iupac.org/100/pt-challenge/

Before you can play, you need to choose an avatar (an element ofcourse!).
Now I don't want to influence your decision in anyway, but ..... the ONLY element named after a woman is Meitnerium, Mt, after Lise Meitner (Curium is named after the wife and husband team of Marie and Pierre Curie).

There are 15 multiple choice questions to answer.
Complete the quiz and generate your certificate.
Get 9 or more correct answers and you get the chance to enter the Nobelium Contest with a chance to win a limited edition Periodic Table autographed by a Nobel Laureate in Chemistry.

The questions are really interesting. Here is a sample..

•  In the 1920s, many companies promoted their products by adding radium. One of the top-selling radium-containing products was 'Radithor'. What was it?

• In the 1880s, Lord Rayleigh found that the density of nitrogen from air was 0.5% greater than the density of nitrogen obtained from other sources. What discovery resulted from this small discrepancy? 

• The 1944 American film ‘Arsenic and Old Lace’, starring Cary Grant, features what use of this chemical element? 

• Despite having few uses, erbium has one very important use that makes it beneficial to the modern world. Which one? 

• Whereas in humans oxygen is bound to iron-containing haemoglobin, spiders and other animals transport oxygen via a different protein in their blood, hemocyanin, which contains copper. What is the color of their blood?

• What happens when a teaspoon made of gallium is used to stir a cup of warm tea?

• The atomic weight of argon varies depending on its source. What is the reason for this phenomenon?

•  Vincent van Gogh’s painting Sunflowers is getting darker due to the presence of chromium in the paint. What is the chemistry behind this change in appearance?

•  When tellurium is absorbed through the skin, it is excreted through sweat as hydrogen telluride making you unfit for social interactions. Why?

• Indium is mostly used to make indium tin oxide which is an important part of touchscreens. How did indium get its name?

•  What name was proposed for bromine by its discoverer, the French scientist Antoine Balard?

 

Polypropene

Polypropene is one of the most widely used plastics in the world.
What is it? How do you make it? What properties does it have? What is it used for?

AUS-e-TUTE has just added a new tutorial, game, test, and exam for our members to help them understand polypropene, and apply that knowledge to answering test and exam questions.
AUS-e-TUTE Members should log-in to use these new resources.

If you are not an AUS-e-TUTE Member you can access a free-to-view tutorial for evaluation purposes at https://www.ausetute.com.au/polypropene.html

Micellar Water

Once upon a time you would buy a bar of soap and use it to wash your hands, face, body, and possibly even your hair.
Not today! Now you have hand-wash for your hands, body-wash for your body, shampoo for your hair, and a huge range of different products to clean your face including "micellar water" or "micellar cleansing water".
Unlike other face-cleaning products which need to be washed off with water, the makers of "micellar water" claim that it will cleanse your skin without vigorous rubbing or rinsing.
Intriguing! This "micellar water" sounds like some kind of magic doesn't it?
What's in "micellar water" and how does it work?

Read all about it in the September 2019 edition of AUS-e-NEWS, AUS-e-TUTE's free quarterly newsletter for chemistry students and teachers.

Want to subscribe to AUS-e-NEWS?

Go to https://www.ausetute.com.au/ausenews.html

polytetrafluoroethene

Polytetrafluoroethene is a very useful polymer. You can can find it encasing electrical wires, being sprayed out of a can of lubricant, and as the non-stick covering on your baking tray. So what is this remarkable polymer? How is it made? What are its properties and uses?
Find out the answers to these and other questions at AUS-e-TUTE.
AUS-e-TUTE members should log-in to view the polytetrafluoroethene tutorial, play the game and take the test and exam.
If you are not a member, you can access a "free-to-view" tutorial at https://www.ausetute.com.au/ptfe.html