Mr. Most-Awesome-Chemistry-Teacher did it again. This afternoon in class, he performed a demonstration of combustion. He made something 'splode! He did it last semester too, in our first semester chemistry class. He told everyone to move to the back of the class and he put a large, probably 50-gallon, glass jug on the desk with a small amount of fuel in it, and then ignited it with a match. The ensuing explosion blew out the ceiling tile above his desk. CHEMISTRY ROCKS!!
On the serious side, he did explain what took place on the molecular level, how it wasn't just the fuel catching fire, but it was the combination of the evaporated fuel and the oxygen that it had mixed with inside of the jug. In fact, dear children, that is what combustion is: "the burning of a fuel by oxidation with oxygen in the air (according to my textbook, Fundamentals of General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry, 4th ed., McMurry and Castellion)." We also learned about chlorofluorocarbons today, how they cause pollution. CHEMISTRY ROCKS!!
Okay, I had better get myself hence to sleep before anyone reads this and decides to defenestrate me, again. I hope that you have a good night, and dream of lovely, correctly balanced chemical equations!
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