A day or two ago, I went to my newly married friends house to throw a surprise birthday party for his wife by bringing in a cake @ 12 midnight...It was fun. A pleasant break from the tiring world of books and numbers. Its funny how marriage transforms a person, at least initially. How even the most macho, testosterone infused guy starts acting weird, all lovey dovey. So, while I was there I noticed a few things. They looked at each other furtively, like secret glances and what not. I mean it seemed they either develped the ability to communicate through mere eye contact OR it was just some affectionate, loving look. I have no idea. Secondly, they start calling each other by elaborately lovey dovey nicks e.g that day bhabi called my friend "J". I mean he does not have any J in his name. So, I couldnt understand the logical link. Curious as I am, when I got back home, I asked my flatmate what could "Jay or J" possibly mean? It couldn't just be some random alphabet she's calling him by. Being the nerd that I am, I even had the whole periodic table of elements going through my head, wondering if it was the name for some precious element or something like gold, platinum etc. But nothing made sence. My flatmate was like duh: its the short form for "jaan".I go, it should have been jinn, given that he is large and impish. Anyhooo, these are just my observations. These days couples act cool by even making the lovey dovey nicks of olden times like jaan into J.
Well, the periodic table just gave me an idea for the nick of my flatmate. From today, I shall call him Z(inc). If I had to go by the element starting with F, I would have been Flourine (I know, I'm going loony but its not my fault. Sleep deprivation, exam stress and fasting has done this to me).
Just for laughs, have a look at the properties and uses of Flourine.
Properties
Flourine is the most reactive element in the world. It reacts with absolutely everything (except for nitrogen, oxygen and some of the lighter noble gases), very often explosively. Flourine attacks and breaks down most organic comounds which burn in it's pale yellow gas.
Chemical synthesis of Flourine is very difficult as compounds containing it will rarely decompose.
The F-F bond in the free-state flourine gas is very weak as flourine is very small, yet very electronegative. It is this weak bond that is responsible for Fourine's destructive nature. The bond is weaker than the other halogen diatomic bonds as, because Flourine is so small, it's lone pairs are pushed together and become repelled.
Well, the periodic table just gave me an idea for the nick of my flatmate. From today, I shall call him Z(inc). If I had to go by the element starting with F, I would have been Flourine (I know, I'm going loony but its not my fault. Sleep deprivation, exam stress and fasting has done this to me).
Just for laughs, have a look at the properties and uses of Flourine.
Properties
Flourine is the most reactive element in the world. It reacts with absolutely everything (except for nitrogen, oxygen and some of the lighter noble gases), very often explosively. Flourine attacks and breaks down most organic comounds which burn in it's pale yellow gas.
Chemical synthesis of Flourine is very difficult as compounds containing it will rarely decompose.
The F-F bond in the free-state flourine gas is very weak as flourine is very small, yet very electronegative. It is this weak bond that is responsible for Fourine's destructive nature. The bond is weaker than the other halogen diatomic bonds as, because Flourine is so small, it's lone pairs are pushed together and become repelled.
Uses
Despite blowing a lot of things up, Flourine is still useful. It is used as hydroflouric acid in aluminium smelting and steel production, and Cryolite (a naturally accuring Flourine source) is used in Aluminium manufacture. Silicoflouride salts are used mainly in water flouridation and laundry detergents.
Without flourine, you'd have no recyclable cans, no cars chassis', your clothes would be filthy, and water wouldn't be safe to drink.
In short, you'd be dead ;)
P.S: Its funny how elements starting with the symbol "A" (representing quite a few people I know) are either precious metals (Au=Gold; Ag=Silver, Al=Aluminum). totally inert nonreactive noble gases (Ar=Argon) or the basic element in poison (As=Arsenic) :S...Just out of curiosity, have you ever wondered, why are noble gases, actually called "noble". According to Saint Google, its because they rarely bond with other elements (before marriage)...As the urdu colloquial expression goes: "tab tak apna daman bacha kar rakhti hain"
Without flourine, you'd have no recyclable cans, no cars chassis', your clothes would be filthy, and water wouldn't be safe to drink.
In short, you'd be dead ;)
P.S: Its funny how elements starting with the symbol "A" (representing quite a few people I know) are either precious metals (Au=Gold; Ag=Silver, Al=Aluminum). totally inert nonreactive noble gases (Ar=Argon) or the basic element in poison (As=Arsenic) :S...Just out of curiosity, have you ever wondered, why are noble gases, actually called "noble". According to Saint Google, its because they rarely bond with other elements (before marriage)...As the urdu colloquial expression goes: "tab tak apna daman bacha kar rakhti hain"
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