Molecules come in infinite varieties, so in order to help the complicated chemical world make a little more sense, we classify and categorize them. One of the most important of those classifications is whether a molecule is polar or non-polar, which describes a kind of symmetry – not just of the molecule, but of the charge. In this edition of Crash Course Chemistry, Hank comes out for Team Polar, and describes why these molecules are so interesting to him.
Imagine a two-dimensional world — you, your friends, everything is 2D. In his 1884 novella, Edwin Abbott invented this world and called it Flatland. Alex Rosenthal and George Zaidan take the premise of Flatland one dimension further, imploring us to consider how we would see dimensions different from our own and why the exploration just may be worth it.
Atoms are a lot like us – we call their relationships “bonds,” and there are many different types. Each kind of atomic relationship requires a different type of energy, but they all do best when they settle into the lowest stress situation possible. The nature of the bond between atoms is related to the distance between them and, like people, it also depends on how positive or negative they are. Unlike with human relationships, we can analyze exactly what makes chemical relationships work, and that’s what this episode is all about.
Light is actually a really complicated ‘thing’ to explain. There’s two ways to think about light. Light can be treated like a particle or a wave.
Today’s episode dives into the HOW of enthalpy. How we calculate it, and how we determine it experimentally…even if our determinations here at Crash Course Chemistry are somewhat shoddy.
How does a transistor work? Our lives depend on this device. When I mentioned to people that I was doing a video on transistors, they would say “as in a transistor radio?” Yes! That’s exactly what I mean, but it goes so much deeper than that. After the transistor was invented in 1947 one of the first available consumer technologies it was applied to was radios, so they could be made portable and higher quality. Hence the line in ‘Brown-eyed Girl’ – “going down to the old mine with a transistor radio.”