The Stuff LEGOs Are Made Of
May 3rd
Did you know the same plastic that is used to make LEGOs caused the recall of 8800000 cars and cost car companies nearly $1 billion? That’s right, the same plastic that makes up those little colorful plastic bricks was the cause of the most widespread and expensive vehicle recall in American history. Want to know some more cool facts about what LEGOs are made up of?
I don’t know about you, but I played (okay, maybe I should say play) with LEGOs a ton. Do you know what those colorful little plastic bricks are made out of? Yes, of course plastic, but what kind? It’s called acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS). Its produced by combining acrylonitrile, butadiene, and styrene. While acrylonitrile is produced from a chemical reaction between propylene and ammonia, and the other two components are made from petroleum products.
For every 1kg of ABS (i.e. LEGO plastic) produced it requires the input of about 2kg of petroleum.
Why did the same plastic that’s used in LEGO bricks cause the largest automobile recall in the U.S.?
It’s because ABS degrades in sunlight. Automobile manufacturers were using the plastic in seat belts. Eventually the seat belts began to lose their strength and hence made pretty bad seat belts. Don’t worry though, the plastic is perfectly safe for LEGOs… unless you plan on making a seat belt out of them. The only annoying thing is that the degradation caused by sunlight will cause the color of the bricks to fade over time.
ABS plastic is used all over the place. It’s used in pipes, canoes, golf clubs, luggage, and other toys. Have you heard of 3D printers? Quite a few of them use ABS as the “printing” plastic.
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Sources:
Sciencedirect
Wikipedia
Image Credit: Slack pics
Element of the Day: Cadmium
Apr 8th
Great for batteries, bad for kidneys. That’s Cadmium. Cadmium is a soft, slightly bluish metal. What most people don’t know is that it is named after a greek mythological character named Cadmus. Cadmus was apparently a pretty intelligent guy; Myth states that he introduced the Phoenician letters to the Greeks. Why was cadmium named after Cadmus? No idea. However, if you’re ever on Jeopardy you now know the question to some answer. It’s a little more odd that it was named after a greek mythological character since it was discovered by two guys in Germany in the 1800s.
Cadmium is a metal that most people know due to its use in Nickel-Cadmium batteries. However, cadmium is also used as a pigment for red, orange, and yellow, it is used to coat metals prone to corrosion, and as a stabilizer in old-school PVC. A small amount of cadmium is used in nuclear reactors to control the rate of fission. Unfortunately, that’s about as exciting as it gets for cadmium’s uses.
Cadmium is rarely used in pigments or as coatings now because of negative environmental and health effects. If you’re a smoker you have a cadmium blood-level that is about 4-5 times higher than an average American. Is it an issue? Possibly. High cadmiun levels can cause renal issues although if you’re healthy in most other ways and have average iron levels you’re probably all right.
That’s about it for cadmium. As long as you stay away from eating batteries and don’t lick old yellow train cars you probably won’t come in direct contact with it.
Next Element of the Day: Krypton
[Image Credit]: Wikimedia
Element of The Day: Zirconium
Apr 4th
Zirconium. It’s an element that most forget about, but many should be thankful for. It probably saves husbands and boyfriends millions of dollars a year; remember seeing cubic zirconia? It looks a lot like a diamond and is even fairly hard. Other than fake diamonds what is element number 40 used for?
About 1% of zirconium stockpiles are used in nuclear reactor fuels. It’s a great element for resisting corrosion but comes with drawbacks. At the high temperatures that nuclear reactors operate under zirconium can react with water and form hydrogen gas. The result; a possible explosion. The small explosion at Three Mile and the explosions at Fukushima I were partly caused by such a reaction.
Okay, so some more practical things this element is used for? Zirconium is used in vacuum tubes, explosive primers, high heat ceramics in jet turbines, space vehicle parts, and abrasives.
Interesting Fact: Zirconium used to be used in an ointment that claimed to treat poison ivy. Turns out that the ointment actually made some people itch even more.
Honestly, zirconium isn’t exactly the rockstar of the elements. It’s not poisonous, isn’t used in drugs, and doesn’t really react with much. However, it’s a lesser known element that most people forget about. Therefore being able to ramble off some of its uses may make people think you’re pretty intelligent… or a major dork. Next Element of the Day: Cadmium!
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[Image Credit] Wikimedia Commons
What’s the Big Deal with Double-Paned Windows?
Jan 16th
I don’t know about you, but I’m a bit skeptical when people say that having a small amount of air in between two panes of glass will significantly increase insulation and decrease heating costs. Does it make sense to spend a few hundred dollars on windows that simply have some air in between glass panes?
It turns out that double-paned windows actually make a huge difference. That extra little space of air is great insulation and helps prevent a ton of heat from escaping; but, why? More >
Where Does the Ideal Gas Law Come From?
Jan 13th
If you’ve ever taken a chemistry class before it’s almost guaranteed that you’ve heard of the ideal gas law. The phrase “pivnert” or just simply PV=nRT makes people cringe almost as much as nails on a blackboard… both due the corniness of the phrase “pivnert” and the fact that about 99% of people despise chemistry and equations in general. This holds true unless you’re a chemical engineer in which case “thank God we’re dealing with an ideal gas” usually comes to mind. At any rate, not many people actually know where the ideal gas law comes from. More >
Create Plasma! With a Grape.
Nov 26th
I always heard about a grape producing plasma, but I never believed it would actually work. Turns out it does. Note- for those of you who aren’t familiar, plasma is a phase of matter in which the gas “glows” due to ionization.
How the heck can a simple grape produce a plasma? Grape juice is full of electrolytes, or ions like Na+ and such. This juice is great for conducting electricity, but the grape skin isn’t. If you look up “grape plasma” on YouTube (or simply watch the video below) you’ll see that the grape is prepared by cutting it in half length-wise. Therefore when the grape juice is “excited” by the waves the microwave is pumping out, electrons hit the grape skin wall. What does this do? Heats the grape skin to about 3000 degrees. More >
DNA Stuff That’s Interesting and Will Make You Sound Smart
Oct 17th
I’m not going to lie; before this year I really didn’t know all that much about DNA. People would always talk about the A’s and T’s and the double helix and I’d nod along pretending that I knew everything they were talking about when I had absolutely no idea. I mean, it all sounded overrated. It seemed like a science topic that everybody was an expert on so I felt like there was no point in really exploring it further.
What I found out was this: Most people who talk about DNA really have no idea what the heck they’re saying and were running off the same principle of pretending to know about it because everyone else seemed to as I was. DNA is actually a really interesting group of molecules that is just as every bit chemistry as it is biology. More >
Awesome Interactive Periodic Table
Oct 13th
Want to see a really cool interactive periodic table? It has a bunch of fun facts that almost anyone will find interesting. I spent about half an our reading all the fun facts. Check it out here: Interactive Periodic Table
Interesting U.S. Penny Facts and Trivia
Aug 12th
Did you know a good deal of the change in your pocket is actually worth more than its’ face value? In fact, one coin alone is worth more than 250% percent of it’s current face value. Did you also know that one of the coins could potentially kill your dog, or oddly enough, your parrot? More >
Turn Pennies Into Gold
Aug 12th
Want to turn pennies into gold? It’s actually a pretty easy chemistry, or should I say alchemy, trick. With the price of gold the way it is today, turning pennies into gold could make you a millionaire. I’ll show you how to mix a few chemicals, along with fire, to create gold pennies.
More >