5 Interesting Chemistry Facts

Cold sensation in metals

You might have noticed that you feel cold while touching any piece of metal? Is that because of climate or temperature? Absolutely not. This is because that metal is a good conductor of heat that means heat flows through metal easily. Due to the body heat, your fingers will be warm and when you touch a metal surface, heat from your finger flows to the metal due to its high conductivity. Heat continues to flow from your hand until you remove your hand and this loss of heat feels you cold. As a result, metal feels cold either.

Shape of water

if you spill a little bit of water, the water droplets will assume a perfect spherical shape. Why is it so? The sphere is a geographical shape with a small surface area for its volume. The drop assumes this shape as the water molecules in it are pulling inward toward each other to stick together. Hence, if it’s not confined in a container or deformed, a tiny droplet can remain spherical. Then what about a raindrop! As the water droplet falls down, it goes against the air and pushes air out of its way. This upward push of the air makes the droplet curve on the top and flatten at the bottom.

The accidental discovery of Iodine

Bernard Courtois, a French chemist was busy in his laboratory by acidifying kelp ash with sulphuric acid and heating. This lead to the emergence of a purple-colored vapor that condensed on a cold surface to form a shining dark crystal. Later, it was identified as `Iodine’. The word `Iodine’ comes from the Greek word `Iodes’ which means `Violet’.

Iron as Celestial stone

During prehistoric times, hundreds of meteorites fell to the earth's surface yearly and many of them contained ninety percentage of iron content. These huge meteorites learned from ancient men about iron and make them call iron a celestial stone. `Hoba’ is the heaviest meteorite that has ever been found weighing 60 tonnes. A crater of 175-meter depth occurred in Arizona desert by the collision of an enormous iron meteorite.

Descent of Roman empire due to lead

Ancient men used lead excessively for their daily life by using lead dishes and vessels and drinking the water that flowed through lead pipes. This led to the massive death of Romans because the water in pipes reacted with the lead to form lead carbonate that caused chronic diseases that grappled many lives. Thus the wealthy and vast Roman Empire declined eventually.

I hope this article helped you get the ultimate fact that chemistry exists everywhere in this world.