1. Transitional Metal of the Week: Nickel!
Nickel comes from the mineral pentlandite. Most nickel is mined in Ontario, Canada. Many believe the large deposit is from an ancient meteor. Our 5-cent coin, the nickel, contains only about 25% nickel. Nickel is silvery white and can be polished to quite a shine. It is hard, malleable, ductile, and fair conductor of electricity. Its symbol is Ni, and the atomic number is 28. Its atomic weight is 60. It resists corrosion (and therefore things are often “nickel plated”), but is soluble in acids.
Most of the other nickel on earth is locked in its molten core, which is 10% nickel. Nickel can be found in vegetables that come from polluted soil. Chocolate and fats contain a relatively high amount of nickel. Smokers have higher amounts of nickel in their lungs. It is essential to health in small quantities, but in large quantities it can result in lung problems (like asthma and bronchitis), heart disorders, birth defects, and allergic reactions (mainly skin rashes from jewelry made of nickel).
The word comes from the German word kupfernickel which some say means false copper and others say it means “Old Nick” which is a name for the devil. Besides nickels, it is also used in nickel-cadmium batteries and is electroplated onto other metals to form a protective covering.
2. Link Review:
I looked at the Water Concepts link. I was listening to some music as I watched the animation of water's hydrogen bonds breaking and reforming. It looked like the molecules were dancing. I was hoping to truly understand why water is so unusual--why it floats as a solid and has such a high boiling point. The answers were there, I'm sure, I'm just not such a fluent chemist yet. Soon, soon...hopefully I can return to this link at a date not too far in the future and will be able to read and understand it with ease. What I did get was that hydrogen bonds are not as strong as covalent bonds, therefore they are breaking and re-forming, hence the dance.
1 comment:
Thanks for your great post. I never realized that nickels weren't made entirely of nickle!
You inspired me to look at the "water dance" pretty cool to see those bonds!!
-Abby
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