bugs181 - 22-3-2007 at 01:03
OK, well first i'd like to start off by introducing myself. My name is Kenny, I usually go by the nickname of Bugz though. I will be turning 18 in
about 20 days. I recently got into Chemistry when I turned 17. I come accross an article of how to make gold using chemicals. I'm not sure how
realistic this was, but it sounded feasible. I love science, and I LOVE to make things. I already understand alot more about science and how the world
works more than most people in my town. I lack in almost every subject but science. I also recently subscribed to Popular Science, so now im MUCH
more interested in some things. I'm the kind of person who loves to protect our environment aswell. (Trying to build a Solar-Panel using Silicon).. Iv
been reading all sorts of things on this forum for the past 15 hours, and so I decided to create a username..
I love Chemistry already and I dont even know much about it.. When I was in 6th grade I used to know the table of elements (Periodic Table of
Elements?) by heart.. There was a huge poster board in my science class, so I studied it..
I'v forgotten most of these by now, but it probably wouldnt be hard for me to get the hang of them again.. I know the most obvious ones, like water.
Recently a new one to me came up called Magnesium Metal (Mg) [Id like to learn more about this particular one aswell.]
Now your probably wondering about the topic of this post. I noticed someone selling/trading/and giving their Chemicals away but this post was dated
back to 2006.
Would it be possible.. rather, would it be bad [lacking a better vocabulary word at the moment] for me to request some free catalogs, textbooks, or
Chemicals? Actually ANYTHING that has to do with Chemistry, website links, articles, or whatever you would like, would be highly appreciated.. I love
this new subject I have chosen, and will probably be a huge impact on my life.
I hope people here are as generous as what I think of them to be.
Levi - 22-3-2007 at 03:05
Welcome to sciencemadness and the wonderful world of chemistry! The library section of this site has some interesting material for you to start with
but much of it is advanced. You can browse for yourself here:
http://www.sciencemadness.org/library/index.html
As to the making gold out of chemicals part of your post it should be said that gold is an element and aside from nuclear reactions (physics not
chemistry) you cannot manufacture it. This means that unless the substance you have already contains the gold atoms you will not be able to extract
any from it. If you happen to have a particle accelerator and a lot of spare time you may be able to transmute some gold from another element but you
won't have any appreciable quantity any time soon and what you do obtain will probably be radioactive
Extracting gold from ore is also not something you want to start out with. Gold occurs naturally with a lot of other metals and separating them is no
small task and involves using some seriously nasty poisons. Plus, the ore itself isn't easy to come by.
Also, water is not an element. It is a compound. A compound is the union of two or more different types of atoms (elements). In the case of water
it is the union of two hydrogen atoms with one oxygen atom (you've probably heard of H<sub>2</sub>O).
I recently scanned the following site and it seems to have everything you'll need.
http://www2.wwnorton.com/college/chemistry/gilbert/overview/...
Pay attention to the chapter links at the top. This should take you through the basics (and acids 
).
Almost a Freebie...
BeanyBoy - 22-3-2007 at 06:09
This isn't quite a freebie, but you can't beat the prices...
Elsehere on the forum is a sticky for Half-Price Books. Many times a search there will link directly to
http://www.abebooks.com
so you might as well just start your search there. Many EXCELLENT chemistry texts for less than US$10, and many even under a dollar. A copy of Daniel
Harris' Quantitative Analysis is on the way, think it was thirty-nine cents plus four bucks S&H.
Oh, I have the solutions manual for that text already...
hth,
-legume lad
pantone159 - 22-3-2007 at 07:16
Aldrich sent me a catalog for free. That was mighty nice of them, considering they would never sell me anything, and thus recoup the cost of the
book. It is quite useful, though.
Fleaker - 22-3-2007 at 12:07
Ooh, and I do love their catalogs. Every year they have some alchemical scene or other painting of the history of chemistry.
As far as stuff to get started, I'd start with learning the periodic table by heart, the properties of all of the elements, and then study compounds
and their different classes. Theory first, experiment later.
Available in our references section and our library are many reputable sources, but at this stage in the game they might not be very useful.
try http://www.webelements.com
[Edited on 22-1-2008 by Fleaker]
bugs181 - 22-1-2008 at 03:07
Oh wow... I found the site. lol.. wow.. I thought id never find this website.. I posted this sometime last year, and bookmarked the webpage. But my
hard-drive on my computer crashed, and I lost ALL of my information. I knew that I joined this website, but I forgot the link. I came across this link
about an hour ago, and since iv been trying to recover my password.. Luckily this website has the password recovery feature. But now that im back.. I
wanted to thank ALL of you who have generously replied. You can expect to see more from me since now that I have casual hard-drive backups and more
than 1 computer. Once again, I thank ALL of you for replying.
MagicJigPipe - 22-1-2008 at 19:22
So, what have you learned about chemistry in the last year? Have you been actively studying or did you just take a long break?
At least now you know that transmutation (making gold from other elements) is not possible with chemistry and not practical with physics and that
water is a molecule. That's a start!
Good luck.
woelen - 23-1-2008 at 00:07
Bugs181, good to see young people starting with science and also good to see you here. Funny to read that your interest is risen by extracting gold
from some chemical mix. Many other(young) people get interested by bangs, smoke and that kind of things .
If you intend to start experimenting yourself, then you may find my webpage, the part about starting a (small) homelab interesting. You can start
already with only very moderate equipment and small amounts of chemicals. You, however, will have to buy smartly. A good small selection of chemicals
will give you more fun and more possibilities to explore chemistry, than a large randomly picked set of chemicals, in which there will be much
overlap, or chemicals for which no other interesting reagent is present in the collection.
http://woelen.scheikunde.net/science/chem/misc/homelab.html
microcosmicus - 23-1-2008 at 00:27
Since you mentioned solar cells in your original post, you might want
to make yourself a Cu2O solar cell:
http://sci-toys.com/scitoys/scitoys/echem/echem2.html#solarc...
While this is highly inefficient, it is at least easy to build and the principle
of operation is the same as for any other solar cell.
bugs181 - 23-1-2008 at 00:36
Wow.. So many links, and so many replies.. This is by far one of the best "groups" to be in. I cant thank you guys enough for all the help.
To: MagicJigPipe, Actually.. I didnt take a long break, however, I didnt study chemistry alot. But every now and then id come across something that
interested me, and id study it for about a week, then move onto another project. However, during the past year alot has happened and I havnt had alot
of time either. But you can expect to see me setting up a lab kit soon.
To: woelen, thats such a coincidence you mentioned that site since I was just there. I think I got your link from another post that struck my
interest. But thanks anyways, and ill be sure to use what I can from your website.
To: microcosmicus, The solar cells have always struck a huge interest to me, since their clean, environmental friendly and put off no poisonous
gasses. Not to mention a great source for energy. Im almost thinking of either buying or renting a solar panel for my rooftop. Another interest of
mine are Solar Water heaters.
Once again, thanks for ALL of your guys' help.. I cant thank you all enough for taking the time to help a n00b.