Chemistry.

What I mostly remember about my chem class in college is that I was scared of lighting the bunsen burner, and my partner made me. He was taller and bigger and so I did it but I wasn't happy about it and never did it again.

Why? One might ask. I was (and still am) quite leery about fire.
 
What I mostly remember about my chem class in college is that I was scared of lighting the bunsen burner, and my partner made me. He was taller and bigger and so I did it but I wasn't happy about it and never did it again.

Why? One might ask. I was (and still am) quite leery about fire.

I play with fire on a semi-regular basis, with something kind of like a bunsen burner on steroids...and lighting it STILL makes me jump sometimes!
 
No bunsen burners in my lab. We're mostly doing reactions in a hood.

Also, I've only imbibed alcohol five or six times, and so far it seems like I'm one of those infuriating people who doesn't get hangovers. ^_^
 
No Bunsen burners in my lab. We're mostly doing reactions in a hood.

Also, I've only imbibed alcohol five or six times, and so far it seems like I'm one of those infuriating people who doesn't get hangovers. ^_^

It is (just) possible you need a little more practice at imbibing.

BTW, does that 1,1,4 gunge have a more 'normal' name ?.
'Fraid my Chemistry days were all inorganic and fun with Acids and so on.
And a very long time ago.
 
International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry. They set standards for nomenclature, measurements, etc. for chemists worldwide.

They are the ones that decided that the collection of carbon and hydrogen atoms in Cruel's first question would be called 1,1,4-trimethyl-1-cyclopentene and not something else.

Yeah, I think I know where this is going. We need a standardized set of names for sex positions.

1,3,1-man-on-bottom,1-woman-on-top,2-hand-on-tits
 
I play with fire on a semi-regular basis, with something kind of like a bunsen burner on steroids...and lighting it STILL makes me jump sometimes!

It took me a long time to get reasonably comfortable doing things like lighting birthday candles, but I use one of those lighters as opposed to matches. I don't like using matches. I'll cook on our gas grill, though.
 
It is (just) possible you need a little more practice at imbibing.

BTW, does that 1,1,4 gunge have a more 'normal' name ?.
'Fraid my Chemistry days were all inorganic and fun with Acids and so on.
And a very long time ago.

Probably.

A good example of common-name verses IUPAC name is common gasoline.

What you are actually getting (in some cases) is 2,2,4-trimethylpentane. And other isomers.
 
I was fascinated by Chemistry in HS. Mainly organic chemistry at that.

When my friend (doing a Chem masters) shows me her textbook now, all I see are stick-figures. Despite her best efforts to convince me that they are compounds, I still think they are stick figures drawn by Salvador Dali on crack. Just goes to show how much I remember. :p
 
I just found out about 1,2,3-propanetriol. It is a compound frequently used in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and lubricants. :D



HO-CH2-CH(OH)-CH2-OH

That's what pleasure looks like. :D
 
Hey, hey, hey! I'm an organic chemist and I've taught nursing students, and I've always stressed nomenclature. I stress it because maybe a nurse doesn't really need to know about organic reactions or analysis or laws of thermodynamics, and all that, but he or she should know just what it is they're dealing with and be able to tell their ass from their elbow when it comes to the drugs and substances they'll be using on a daily basis.

There are tens of millions of organic compounds known, but a chemist can tell just from the name exactly how all these atoms are arranged in space, and translating name to structure and vice versa can be (dare I say?) fun, like doing a puzzle.

And believe me, a trimethylated cycloalkene is nothing. Wait till you start getting into stereochemistry and fused heterocyclic rings... (Just teasing. You won't have to deal with those suckers.)

If you need any help with anything, just let me know...
 
I just found out about 1,2,3-propanetriol. It is a compound frequently used in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and lubricants. :D



HO-CH2-CH(OH)-CH2-OH

That's what pleasure looks like. :D

Its common name is glycerin (sometimes glycerol). If you substitute Nitro groups (-NO2) for the OH's, guess what you get?

Trinitoglycerin, or more commonly, just nitroglycerin.

By the way, the stuff they put in sunless-tanning cream is 1,3-dihydroxyacetone, or 1,3-dihydroxy-2-propanone in IUPAC. It's trivial name is glycerone. It tans you by forming bonds with amino acids in the dead layers of your skin in a process called the Maillard Reaction. That's the same reaction that causes the skin of a turkey or chicken to turn brown in the oven, so it all makes a kind of sense. :)

Better living through chemistry...
 
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Its common name is glycerin (sometimes glycerol). If you substitute Nitro groups (-NO2) for the OH's, guess what you get?

Trinitoglycerin, or more commonly, just nitroglycerin.

By the way, the stuff they put in sunless-tanning cream is 1,3-dihydroxyacetone, or 1,3-dihydroxy-2-propanone in IUPAC. It's trivial name is glycerone. It tans you by forming bonds with amino acids in the dead layers of your skin in a process called the Maillard Reaction. That's the same reaction that causes the skin of a turkey or chicken to turn brown in the oven, so it all makes a kind of sense. :)

Better living through chemistry...

Gimme a break, this is INTRO to organic chemistry. :D
 
It's years since I studied chemistry for the UK. O and A level exams. Our normal teacher was a nice guy but one term we had a student teacher who hammered the concept of valency into our un-receptive skulls. Suddenly it all started to make sense.

Incidentally, I don't remember studying anything but inorganic chemistry - but it was a while back.
 
Gimme a break, this is INTRO to organic chemistry. :D
Well, at least you're learning a real science, even if it is (shudder) organic chemistry.
I'd like to offer my help, but 1) I only got two years of organic chemistry under my belt and then I was able to attend just the more interesting chemistry classes. 2) it was all a long, long time ago.
Be thankful you're learning IUPAC, some of us had to learn the traditional names as well. Some professors at that time stubbornly refused to repeat the IUPAC names...even on exams!
 
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