INTERESTING FACT OF THE DAY

HF is horrible stuff One of the places I used to work at used to use it. It can just dissolve bone and everything. That is one thing I wouldn't want to have to work with. HCl and TFA etc are no probs, but not that stuff.

Originally Posted by Scooby Drew

Maybe it is sulphuric acid then, school was long time ago...

Not so much stronger, but adding water to Sulphuric acid is an exothermic reaction - it will boil and spit dangerously. You should always add the acid to water.

Hydrochloric acid does not react so strongly with water but it is still recommended to add the acid to the water.

Originally Posted by Amanda M

HF is horrible stuff One of the places I used to work at used to use it. It can just dissolve bone and everything. That is one thing I wouldn't want to have to work with. HCl and TFA etc are no probs, but not that stuff.

It is.
Did you ever work with fuming HCl though? Like, its so concentrated, its going back into the gas state, and into the air. And you dont want to breath that in. Jaysus. That was the one that scared the living crap out of me. And then there is all the carcinogens... and ... yeah. Dont even want to think about it, now that I am out of the wet labs.
Yuck.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrofluoric_Acid

Indeed it isnt nice stuff, needing to be kept in Teflon bottles as it reacts with glass.

Did you also know that some O/X rings and rubber hoses produce HF when they burn? This is why car/bike fires can be so damn hazzardous.

Babies are not meant to be dried off in a tumble dryer.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/5028826.stm

Sometimes I feel Aussies seem to have more than their fair share of tools knocking about the general population.

Ok one for tomorrow while Im not about:

toponymy is the study of place names and their meanings.

Most places which end in a -by [Grimsby, Derby etc] are thought to be Viking settlements as the name -by derives from the old Norse for settlement.

Ham is Old English [ie Anglo Saxon] for homestead so Rotherham, Oldham etc were more likely to be Anglo Saxon settlements.

Towns ending is castor, cestor, chester are usually built on old Roman sites.

Hurst [lamberhurst, goudhurst etc] is Old English for wooded hill.

Thorpe is Old Norse meaning secondary settlement. So Cleethorpes is more likely to have originated as a scandanavian settlement.

Ton or Tun is harder to distinguish as one is Old English the other Old Norse but both mean an enclosure and its from where places like Charlton, Tonbridge and Tunstead are derived. And its from where we derive the word town.

Aber is listed as Welsh, Pictish and Cornish meaning mouth of river. So Aberdeen is from Aber Dee and Aberystwyth is from Aber Ystwyth.

When I was in norway, I would hear these dublin slang words once in a while, and understood the meaning of them, but was totally baffled how Norwegians had learnt them.
These were slang words that were part of my vocab when I grew up, but I had to stop using them when I moved off into the country, cause other Irish people didnt understand them.

Then the penny dropped.

Dublin is a Viking town... and bits of the Nordic language live on...

[northwind]

Originally Posted by Quiff Wichard

37%OF 12- 74 YEAR OLDS IN THE UK DID NOT BUY ANY BOOKS AT ALL IN 2005

"If you only read one book this year, I recommend you keep your mouth shut" Simon Munnery.

Originally Posted by lynw

Did you also know that some O/X rings and rubber hoses produce HF when they burn? This is why car/bike fires can be so damn hazzardous.

Yeah I heard about that too

PhilipMac - I was just using conc HCl this morning in fact! It's horrible

Originally Posted by lynw

Aber is listed as Welsh, Pictish and Cornish meaning mouth of river. So Aberdeen is from Aber Dee and Aberystwyth is from Aber Ystwyth.

Which makes places like Abergavenny even more confusing for people. I think it started being called that because the Fenni joins with another river nearby (I think) but the actual name of the town is Y Fenni, or The Fenni.