Posted by Kyo on May 22, 2008 at 09:32:51:
In Reply to: Final Day (05 Nov) Qns posted by Kyo on November 03, 2007 at 17:18:24:
The chemistry of this video is flawed. It's a joke video, one that is in dangerous taste (in more ways than one). Synthetic drugs are almost always harmful. Do the Vonderplanitz, eat only natural raw organic foods!
Let's play the "Spot the Chemistry Errors in this YouTube Video" game :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jX0zWvYWBaI
If anyone watching the video failed their high school chemistry and thinks its for real and makes the stuff and snorts/inhales it… if they survive, they probably wished they’d paid more attention during their high school chemistry classes.
The most obviously glaring error, of course is i one instance in the video, a supposed gas is identified as NaOH5(g). As a Chemistry teacher, I’d suggest to my students to note the following :
1) Sodium has an invariable oxidation state or ionic charge in its compounds. That is to say, the cation is identified, and hence so is the charge on the anion.
2) Being in period 2, oxygen has no empty d orbitals. Hence, is it able to expand its valence octet? (count the number of lone pairs and bond pairs of oxygen in the supposed compound)
3) Is it possible for the compound or the anion to be a coordination compound or complex ion? If so, what are the ligands and what is the central metal atom/ion? Can it exist?
4) Attempt to draw the Kekule structure of the anion in the supposed gaseous compound. Is it possible, keeping in mind points #1 to #3 above? Is it possible?
5) Additionally, should NaOH5 (if it exists) be a giant ionic, or covalent (either simple/discrete molecular or giant molecular) compound under room temperature and pressure? As such, what are its possible state symbols it can exist as? (g) or (aq) or (s) or (l)? What did the video purport its state symbol to be?
Moral of the Story : Know your Chemistry well. It could one day save your life (alternatively, don’t believe everything you watch on YouTube).