Which is your year of birth?

Slowly getting close to the big 5-0... Scary thought that time goes by so fast. I was fascinated by chemistry in my early days after college, where I had cool chemistry teachers that gave us quite a bit of latitude when experimenting (and gathering reagents).

But I put everything away for many decades before my interest in chemistry was revived by interesting "gold salvaging" experiments and home brewing/distilling. So my current interest is tangible and useful, it's not just youthful experimentation, I actually am in the process of accomplishing concrete experiments that have either an interesting monetary purpose, or a very flavorful, hoppy result!

Using my limited knowledge just for cool, what-the-heck experiment is also fun too! LOL

Robert

I'm just turning 18! I feel pretty young for this forum and know I know far less then the senior members here, but I'm pretty sure I'll be here for quite a while

Interesting bimodal distribution we are developing here. Am I really the only one from 1970-1979?

O3

[edit] Sh*t, Bbartlog, I just noticed your post

[Edited on 28-4-2011 by Ozone]

Great minds think alike...

I'm 25 as of 2011. I guess I'm in the majority. (For now)

[Edited on 28-4-2011 by Bot0nist]

Is it just me, or has it not dawned on anyone yet that a 6 year old couldn't possibly use the internet

Quote: Originally posted by Saerynide

Is it just me, or has it not dawned on anyone yet that a 6 year old couldn't possibly use the internet

Quote: Originally posted by The WiZard is In

At next birthday — think consensual sodomy. I wouldn't be this old if — had my mother had said NO.

Fifty nos and a yes still means yes!

The distribution which I now see building up is something which I did not expect, but I can explain it though. I expected a peak around 25 and a slow decline at increasing age, but what is interesting is to see a second peak around around the age of 45 years.

The youngest members are in their teens. They are many of them who are interested in science, some of them in a kewlish way, others more seriously, but few know of sciencemadness. The really interested people among them eventually will find sciencemadness when they persist and move on to their twenties. The largest group are the people in the first half of their twenties. These are the people, who usually have most time and do not yet have a family, a demanding career, and a mortgage with the associated duties which make having time consuming hobbies more difficult. At the same time they have some money to spend, albeit limited due to studies and living out of the parent's house. Their relative freedom however more than compensates the lack of money and the really enthusiasts among them can find money for experimenting anyway (a matter of taking the right priorities ).

The number of people, active in home chemistry then quickly declines when people move on to their second half of their twenties. I personally have seen a few people quit at that age, due to the starting of a family, buying their first house, starting a career.
Then there is a dip in the group of people in their thirties. That is the most occupied group, having kids, a demanding career, all kinds of social ties and financial duties.
In the group from 1960 ... 1969 you see that many of them have older children, have less financial duties and larger financial resources and have more time for hobbies. The next two groups are smaller again, but that can be explained because in this group there is a lower involvement in internet affairs like forums, youtube channels etc.

What I see over here, I also see in the church where I am active. Most people who actively contribute to the church (e.g. organizing events, helping out with activities) are young enthusiast people in the age between 20 and 25 and people with more time and resources at an age of 45+. The people in the age of 30 .. 40 simply are too occupied and they hardly contribute and just visit services on Sundays and little else. I have seen many of these 'inactive' people become more active 10 years later while some of the young enthusiasts of 10 years ago now are fully occupied by all their other duties.

Quote: Originally posted by Saerynide

Is it just me, or has it not dawned on anyone yet that a 6 year old couldn't possibly use the internet

Another mark for the 70s here; born in '78. I vaguely remember that old lime green shaggy carpeting my parents had in the house .

I'm 32 years old and at a point in my career where I have more free time. Much of my spare time is dedicated to my family and my other hobbies take up much of my capital. I'm very new to chemistry but I'll be acquiring bits of knowledge here and bits of labware there over the years (if I live to a ripe old age).

I thought there were a lot more thirty-somethings here on SM.

Tank

Shag carpet rules!

I just turned 14 on 5-19 and joined this forum recently. I've loved chemistry for as long as I can remember (got a textbook & encyclopedia when 5). Since I'm very close to having a lab, this will be the absolute best summer of my life

I'm one of the old farts...

Class of 57. I've been involved in chemistry one way or another my whole life. I started young; my parents got me my 1st chemistry set when I was 6 or 7. Then I got real lucky. When I was 9 a local lab when broke and my dad bought a bunch of their equipment. I was set up. Though having to teach myself I quite naturally drifted into energetcis. But back then it was no problem. The neighbors were all cool with it. After a window rattling boom they'd go: "Oh it's just Brian". And the lab supply places would sell you anything you wanted. What a kinder, gentler time huh?

In between was a chem degree with a lot of lab work in natural products synthesis and protein biochemistry; a few years in the Army blowing up stuff around the world, including 18 months where I tested artillery fired landmines twice a week; work as a quality control engineer in a chemical oriented process plant; a consulting career where I helped a variety of companies utilize statistics to improve their manufacturing; my recent hobby of making all types of ammonium perchlorate composite rocket propellant; and doing some substitute math and science teaching at my daughter's British International School.

The teaching was interesting. I've taught hundreds of adults during my consulting career, but never kids. The day before school started I told the principal that I'd be happy to be a substitute in math or science if they ever needed one. He then said great, can you start tomorrow! Seems one of their math teachers bailed at the last minute and the new guy wouldn't arrive for a week. So the 1st period the 1st day I found myself with the Y13 IB math class. In the US system that would be HS seniors in AP math. Luckily for me the topic was statistics. I also ended up doing a few weeks of science teaching. I was a bit rusty on the labs, but it was fun. Plus being overseas there are no real restrictions on what you can do. Make Nitrogen Triiodide, no problem, blow up some Na, sure; gas out a room with some Br, OK; do fractional distillation of hexane and another flammable, with a bunsen burner and kids crowded around OK (this was not me, I was cowering across the room). It was interesting. They just hired a young British teacher who was having a bit of trouble with his freedom. I guess it was due to the fact that in the UK he couldn't do any of this. When he demo'd the Na; he put in way too big of a piece and managed to scorch the ceiling of the brand new lab. Recently he needed 18 stitches in his fingers because he tried to pull the rubber tubing off a sidearm test tube and ripped the sidearm off instead. He's still gung ho though.

Now I have my kids to motivate my return to chemistry. My 14 yr old daughter really likes chemistry. I have to say the Brit system gives them a lot more science than the US system. Last year and this year (she'd be an 8th grader in the US) science was the topic that got the most time, followed by math, then English. A very sensible scheme if you ask me. And this year she got specialist teachers for each area: biology, chemistry, physics. My 11yr old son is pretty excited to get started on rocket stuff. So I ordered enough chems for us to make a few pounds of propellant when we're at my inlaws 62 acre farm this summer.

Wow, did I ramble on. But being an old fart gives some license for that right

Quote: Originally posted by franklyn

How many of these threads do we need ? http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=2120 http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=3100 http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=16170 .

So sad to see that no one my age (13) is interested in anything other than video game mass-virtual-murder so it now looks like i am the youngest member here. How interesting. I'm not a pyromaniac like some people my age. I got into chemistry when I was 11 but I started to want more by 12. Sadly even if I try to explain the simplest chemistry to any one (My science teacher is not a chemist)especially my parents, they say No That will EXPLODE BLAH BLAH I REALLY DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT BUT BLAH BLAH from my parents. But even if it's a fellow student in the simplest terms possible, they still don't get it like how a glow stick works (i don't discuss pyro with anyone or acid that kind of thing that could give the wrong impression) 2 of them said to make XXX that I would have to put sodium metal in it or put XXX in it to glow, ah so sad to see them talking out of there butt.(I'm not saying i know everything about anything but I hope it doesn't come out that way). Thank you for reading this rant.

Quote: Originally posted by DeathAdder

So sad to see that no one my age (13) is interested in anything other than video game mass-virtual-murder so it now looks like i am the youngest member here. How interesting. I'm not a pyromaniac like some people my age. I got into chemistry when I was 11 but I started to want more by 12. Sadly even if I try to explain the simplest chemistry to any one (My science teacher is not a chemist)especially my parents, they say No That will EXPLODE BLAH BLAH I REALLY DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT BUT BLAH BLAH from my parents. But even if it's a fellow student in the simplest terms possible, they still don't get it like how a glow stick works (i don't discuss pyro with anyone or acid that kind of thing that could give the wrong impression) 2 of them said to make XXX that I would have to put sodium metal in it or put XXX in it to glow, ah so sad to see them talking out of there butt.(I'm not saying i know everything about anything but I hope it doesn't come out that way). Thank you for reading this rant.

Sometimes I have similar feelings, too.
btw. I am 16

Nice to see I'm not alone in having been treated that way. I go to a private school and we are a close nit group of roughly 350 students, but everyone (rather intrestingly) knows me by sight or name, i've sadly become known as "that crazy kid","the human encyclopedia" (got that for being the only non-high school student taking the high school SAT this december),"senior nutcase", and my piece de resistance "the kid who can kill you with lighting"(tesla coil).
Little brothers and sisters tell all I'm afraid. I've shut up about chemistry at my school because nobody understands it.

Nice nicknames
I talk about chemistry only if someone asks. I brought dry ice into school 2 or 3 times So funny, me and my friend put it into our bottles and it made nice dense smoke, we were also making smoke circles by pressing the bottle fast, you know what I mean?

Chemistry is fun, but it's a shame that almost nobody is interested in it. And it is also a shame, that when many people hear the word "chemist", they usually imagine some drug makers or terrorists.

Ah Adas, so so true. It is very sad that even my parents show no will or desire to even listen to what i have to say (about chemistry). I don't want to sound like I'm moping by saying that, so here are a few-.
But not so nice nicknames, though, I was always "that weird kid no one understands" i have no friends at all (never did, and I learned when you have chemistry that becomes your only friend) sure I talk to people but I don't truly know anyone. If I brought dry ice to school and told them that CO2 was an Asphyxiant gas they would think I was trying to kill them "sigh" i mean there truly is nothing wrong with a tesla coil but they are all so immature about that.(Try saying it really fast and chances are you'll see what I'm getting at) If only people knew what true chemistry looked like and that it does not have only 2 purposes like some people think it does(blowing stuff up and drugs). It is so sadly inevitable that the retarded news media can't grasp the concept of shutting up when your ahead.
EDIT:Read that quote by Einstein "I live in that solitude that is painful in youth but delicious in the years of maturity."
Edgar Allen Poe wrote something that pretty much sums up my situation pretty well ahem
" From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were; I have not seen
As others saw; I could not bring
My passions from a common spring.
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow; I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone;
And all I loved, I loved alone.
Then- in my childhood, in the dawn
Of a most stormy life- was drawn
From every depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still:
From the torrent, or the fountain,
From the red cliff of the mountain,
From the sun that round me rolled
In its autumn tint of gold,
From the lightning in the sky
As it passed me flying by,
From the thunder and the storm,
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view." words to live by.




[Edited on 8-11-2011 by DeathAdder]

Wow. I think it is sad that you have no friends at all. I am more lucky! I have 2 friends that are interested in chemistry - one of them is my cousin He loves chemistry like me. Plus I have very good girl-friend, she changed my life and taught me a lot of things So I thank her for this.

But to be honest, I don't have much friends and most of them I know only from internet
That quotation from Einstein is a good and faithful one.

I always hated to be like others, I don't understand the others, they don't understand me (just like your case). I was always alone when I was younger. I was searching for bugs in the grass and so xD Old times. Then I switched to chemistry somehow. But I am lucky to have some friends now
Thanks God. Friends are very important in my life.

btw. Have you got skype or icq? (or facebook)

Sorry for the late reply Adas, but no I never liked social media at all I do have a facebook but have it only if i need to download something or things like that. I have a you tube channel but there are 0 videos (i wanted to know what a particular song was ). I should have worded that a bit better than I did. But don't feel sad at all I've (perhaps I'm crazy?) grown to like the solitude people do talk to me but usually out of boredom.

I hope I don't sound like I'm having a pity party though.

Quote: Originally posted by DeathAdder

So sad to see that no one my age (13) is interested in anything other than video game mass-virtual-murder so it now looks like i am the youngest member here. How interesting. I'm not a pyromaniac like some people my age. I got into chemistry when I was 11 but I started to want more by 12. Sadly even if I try to explain the simplest chemistry to any one (My science teacher is not a chemist)especially my parents, they say No That will EXPLODE BLAH BLAH I REALLY DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT BUT BLAH BLAH from my parents. But even if it's a fellow student in the simplest terms possible, they still don't get it like how a glow stick works (i don't discuss pyro with anyone or acid that kind of thing that could give the wrong impression) 2 of them said to make XXX that I would have to put sodium metal in it or put XXX in it to glow, ah so sad to see them talking out of there butt.(I'm not saying i know everything about anything but I hope it doesn't come out that way). Thank you for reading this rant.

Quote: Originally posted by DeathAdder

So sad to see that no one my age (13) is interested in anything other than video game mass-virtual-murder so it now looks like i am the youngest member here. How interesting. I'm not a pyromaniac like some people my age. I got into chemistry when I was 11 but I started to want more by 12. Sadly even if I try to explain the simplest chemistry to any one (My science teacher is not a chemist)especially my parents, they say No That will EXPLODE BLAH BLAH I REALLY DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT BUT BLAH BLAH from my parents. But even if it's a fellow student in the simplest terms possible, they still don't get it like how a glow stick works (i don't discuss pyro with anyone or acid that kind of thing that could give the wrong impression) 2 of them said to make XXX that I would have to put sodium metal in it or put XXX in it to glow, ah so sad to see them talking out of there butt.(I'm not saying i know everything about anything but I hope it doesn't come out that way). Thank you for reading this rant.

hahaha
elementcollector1 ,
Same problem same age the only difference is that i never had fruitful experiment in my life

BTW, about parents i always get "are you sure that won't explode?" question when i put my chlorate cell in the kitchen :p

As for you, <strong>plante1999</strong>, I'm dismayed, and frankly, a little worried.

Quote: Originally posted by plante1999

Depend more on the guy, than the age.

Quote: Originally posted by bfesser

Dismayed, because young chemists will <em>always</em> do stupid things&mdash;I know I did&mdash;and we're encouraging them! [Edited on 6/22/13 by bfesser]

I do my best not to do anything stupid.

Quote: Originally posted by bfesser

As for you, <strong>plante1999</strong>, I'm dismayed, and frankly, a little worried. Quote: Originally posted by plante1999   Depend more on the guy, than the age. Perhaps you could that it depends more on the <em>individual</em> than on the age of that individual. We need to encourage young women to become interested in chemistry and the hard sciences, not exclude them. (Yes, I know that people casually refer to people of either sex as "guys". In writing, it's poor practice.) [Edited on 6/22/13 by bfesser]

Quote: Originally posted by ParadoxChem126

I'm 12, born in 2001.

Quote: Originally posted by hkparker

I'm just turning 18! I feel pretty young for this forum and know I know far less then the senior members here, but I'm pretty sure I'll be here for quite a while

Quote: Originally posted by bfesser

We need to encourage young women to become interested in chemistry and the hard sciences, not exclude them. (Yes, I know that people casually refer to people of either sex as "guys". In writing, it's poor practice.) [Edited on 6/22/13 by bfesser]

Quote: Originally posted by bfesser

More young'uns than I had expected. I don't know if I should be dismayed or delighted. Dismayed, because young chemists will <em>always</em> do stupid things&mdash;I know I did&mdash;and we're encouraging them! Delighted, because there may be hope for a future generation of chemists, despite their parents' chemophobia. [Edited on 6/22/13 by bfesser]

For the record, I'm somewhere between 25-30 years old..

As has been pointed out, age is not necessarily the big factor here. Certainly, maturity has a lot to do with this (I work in a military environment, and you should see the 18 years olds that I have to deal with. They are like 12 year olds....), but kids can be safe and smart just like adults.

However, I think EDUCATION and UNDERSTANDING has the biggest role here. If you don't actually have a real understanding of the chemicals you're working with, you will not have as great of respect for them safety wise. And, our average teenage-chemist is simply not likely to possess much in the way of formal chemistry lab education.

Still, I would NEVER trust any SMART teen under 16 year olds to work with concentrated acids/etc. without proper supervision. I mean, they may be smarter than the average teen, but they are still KIDS! Just my 2 cents... And for your average typical kid, no serious chemicals without supervision until at least 18...

We have all given ourselves Nitric Acid tattoos in our freshmen-level university labs, but hopefully, most of us older people have moved on from this stage...


[Edited on 26-8-2013 by MichiganMadScientist]

Quote: Originally posted by MichiganMadScientist

Still, I would NEVER trust any SMART teen under 16 year olds to work with concentrated acids/etc. without proper supervision. I mean, they may be smarter than the average teen, but they are still KIDS! Just my 2 cents... And for your average typical kid, no serious chemicals without supervision until at least 18... [Edited on 26-8-2013 by MichiganMadScientist]

We are all a bit mad, . Chemicals are nothing to be feared, but they must always be respected

Again, I feel its more of a respect thing than a fear thing. From your posts, it pretty much sounds like we are on the same page here regarding this. "Real" chemists can get careless, too. Safety practices are super enforced in undergrad teaching labs, but I happen to know that in the research labs, safety goggles aren't always worn as much as they should be. Having said this, people who work in these labs have already developed a very thorough set of safe chemistry lab practices...

A Good Example:

Don't get me wrong, I'm ALL for letting teens experiment with chemistry. It just needs to happen in a proper enviroment. In the US, we often take young children deer hunting. We teach them how to shoot a firearm even at a young age. But we start them out by first heavily emphasizing safety issues. Guns are not cool toys. They are machines designed to do little more than Kill. A 12 year old simply hasn't lived long enough to appreciate fully the meaning of dangerous. An older child (a teen) has a better grasp on the seriousness of a firearm, but still cannot be universally expected to have the ability and maturity to ALWAYS make safe decisions. And with guns and chemicals, there is NO ROOM for even ONE TIME mistakes. That one mistake could mean acid in one's eyes or shooting oneself in the head. That's why we have adults. Adults may never need to intervene because the child is responsible enough, but the Adult should still be there in most cases, just in case.

[Edited on 26-8-2013 by MichiganMadScientist]

Lolwut? Does your family live on a boat or something???

...Lolwuuuuuuuuut???

Seriously. Europeans crack me up.... Over here in the U.S., we tend to think of Canadians as being a cutesy, gentle people with a slightly-odd accent. Canadians just seem so harmless. But you Europeans are like, "Elemental Iodine?, Jolly Good Fun!!"

I wish I could play with Iodine crystals and not get arrested over here...

[Edited on 26-8-2013 by MichiganMadScientist]

Sure we do, there is already a GL45 sized I2 stain on the ash floor been there almost a year, so I guess she might be right. (I thought the cap was clean and put it on the floor in front of the heater to dry.

Lol, you know how many people who first hear about my interest in chemistry ask if I can make a bomb for the allochtonen (basically non whites and Romanians and such)

What exactly would you like to do with I2 crystals? stain you fingers? stain other things?

19 here, born in 94'.
@Michigan Pssh playing with iodine isnt a big deal you can even buy it on ebay (just dont mix it with sulfuric acid ) but coming across some elemental phosphorus like pyro over there now that would really be something! Guess were stuck in the mud until meth becomes legal :\

Quote: Originally posted by Oscilllator

Quote: Originally posted by bfesser   We need to encourage young women to become interested in chemistry and the hard sciences, not exclude them. (Yes, I know that people casually refer to people of either sex as "guys". In writing, it's poor practice.) [Edited on 6/22/13 by bfesser] Just as an interesting fact: I hear that nowadays the gender discrepancy in biology can be greater than that in Phys/chem because so many women end up doing biology. Surprising!

Quote: Originally posted by zts16

This poll is pretty interesting. I would have never expected that my age group (I'm currently 16, born in '97) would be the largest group on the forum, at least as of now anyway.

I'm currently 21 years old, born in 1992

Quote: Originally posted by Awesomeness

Hopefully we will see a decrease in legal troubles due to increased interest in home chemistry...

Quote: Originally posted by Zombie

Where do all these young whipper snappers come from?

Quote: Originally posted by teodor

I am surprised that in my range 1970-1979 there are less people than in 1960 - 1969 and 1980-1989 groups. Is it something with demography?