The $200 Million Mistake Hiding in Chicago’s Skyline

I need to remember to take my umbrella the next time I got to Chicago in case a 350-pound Carrara marble slab comes tumbling down from a building.

The building in question - now known as the Aon Center - was originally clad in the aforementioned Carrara marble, using panels that were 1.25 inches thick.

Apparently marble isn't terribly durable when going through extreme freeze-thaw-hot-summer cycles with each temperature shift leading to tiny cracks developing which allowed water to get into the cracks and freeze - like pot holes forming on the side of the (initially) world's 4th tallest building. 

Eventually, all the marble panels were replaced with granite which seems to weather the Chicago winters far better and is less prone to hurling itself off the building's facade and onto the tourists looking up with their mouths agape. 

Learn to Build With Cardboard! STRONG, Waterproof, and Free!

We've seen NightHawkInLight around these parts before - or at least we've heard his voice.

In this video, he posits a few simple rules for building with cardboard...

• Direction matters - cardboard is not equally strong in all directions
• Layer for strength - laminate/glue multiple layers together for a strong material
• Glue then trim - glue the layers together before trimming them to size
• Wheat paste is awesome - It's an environmentally friendly glue - which he shows you how to make.
• Reinforce edges - Trim and fold over the cardboard facing to reinforce the edges
• Mixed materials - Small amounts of wood can be added for extra, targeted strength
• Face jointed reinforcement - again with the wood reinforcement
• Surface hardening - more wheat paste but as sizing not as glue
• Securing joints - use toothpicks to hold pieces in place until the wheat paste sets
• Utilize tensile strength - cardboard is strong in tension; use its strength
• Templates save time - if you're making dozens of the same piece, use a template
• Splice sheets perfectly - He shows a way to thin both sheets and splice two together.
• Fold sheets cleanly - sort of like the splicing
• Papercrete fiber recycling - Hey, a composite made of composites! This one is wheat paste and paper pieces - not ice.
• Panel jointery - Again, more tips for joining pieces together
• Improved jointery - seriously, more joining tips

Then he gets to how to waterproof the cardboard. One of the methods he suggests involves shellac - which I've blogged about before and is very much not vegan-friendly - with beeswax. The other is hot glue, beeswax, and mineral oil and looks to be way gloopier.

The last part of the video explores ways to make the waterproof coating UV-resistant, something that I never would have thought to be concerned with.

Honestly, this video is way more detailed about cardboard building than I ever would have guessed could be done.

Now I just need to go back in time and get grandpa to bring home some boxes from his Inland Container job in the 70's.

PYREX vs pyrex - What's The Difference & Why It Matters

About thirteen minutes into the above video, the YouTuber shows a screenshot from the Corning Museum of Glass's website...

...that asks whether the PYREX stamp in all caps definitely tells that the PYREX item was made with borosilicate glass - something I'd been told was a definitive tell.

According to the Corning Museum website, "the change from upper to lower case signified a re-branding of the trademark Pyrex®  in the late 1970s but is not a conclusive way to determine, historically, what type of glass formulation the product is made from."

So that's apparently out the window.

The video does go on to explore the various other ways of differentiating borosilicate from soda lime pyrex: the blue tint, visibility in mineral oil, even a not-very-scientific drop test onto a patio block.

In the end, the best that the host came up with was to look for a made in France mark. Apparently the French know to use only borosilicate glass.

Why Lithium Is Dangerous But PERFECT For Batteries

Our chemistry book has a diagram of a battery in the electrochemistry chapter, and I discuss that battery for a bit before explaining to my students that the basics of ACME (anode, cathode, metallic path, electrolyte) hold for every battery but that the engineering of modern lithium-ion batteries is far different from the diagram in the book.

This video - again leaning into the algorithm-rewarded longer and longer format - explains some battery basics involving the activity series, the history of the development of the lithium-ion battery, and the methods of fiery failure when the battery overheats.

This is, as Dr Derek says, a technology that has allowed our modern, battery-dependent world.

Unsolved Physics Problems

 

Source - XKCD

See, today Randall explores and pokes fun at the idea of zinc whiskers, an admittedly freaky phenomenon in which some metals - including zinc, tin, cadmium, and lead - spontaneously grow tiny 'whiskers' from their surface. These whiskers can cause short circuiting in electronic devices, and the mechanism through which the whiskers form isn't well understood.

Sources to learn more about whiskering...

• Wikipedia
• ExplainXKCD
• NASA

...and a freaky photo of actual zinc whiskers from wikipedia...

Source - wikipedia

Melting Metals in the Microwave | The Ultimate Guide

This video needs a massive - Don't Try This at Home - disclaimer. 

That's in spite of the fact that the entire video is telling you how you can exactly do that - melt metal at home. 

The procedure is interesting...

• use insulating ceramic wool to shape an insulating chamber 
• wrap the insulating chamber in kapton tape
• polish the surfaces of the ceramic wool
• 'paint' the surfaces with kiln wash
• make a crucible from silicon carbide
• ???
• profit!

I've posted videos showing processes similar to this before, but today's video includes way more detail on the 'how-to' part of the process.

The Battelle Handbook

Materials Science and Technology - Teachers Handbook by phschemguy on Scribd

Things occasionally disappear from Scribd, so I'm also going to provide a Google Drive link to the above document here (and a link to the document directly on the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) website). Admittedly, it's a large pdf (350 or so pages), so you may want to download it rather than view it via preview.

This document is - to at least some extent - the forerunner of the ASM summer workshops, with many of our activities having been initially developed (or at least compiled) in the Materials Science and Technology Teachers Handbook from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory operated by Battelle. I'll copy the abstract for the handbook in its entirety (in case link rot takes it away)...

The Materials Science and Technology (MST) Handbook was developed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, in Richland, Washington, under support from the U.S. Department of Energy. Many individuals have been involved in writing and reviewing materials for this project since it began at Richland High School in 1986, including contributions from educators at the Northwest Regional Education Laboratory, Central Washington University, the University of Washington, teachers from Northwest Schools, and science and education personnel at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Support for its development was also provided by the U.S. Department of Education. This introductory course combines the academic disciplines of chemistry, physics, and engineering to create a materials science and technology curriculum. The course covers the fundamentals of ceramics, glass, metals, polymers and composites. Designed to appeal to a broad range of students, the course combines hands-on activities, demonstrations and long term student project descriptions. The basic philosophy of the course is for students to observe, experiment, record, question, seek additional information, and, through creative and insightful thinking, solve problems related to materials science and technology. The MST Teacher Handbook contains a course description, philosophy, student learning objectives, and instructional approach and processes. Science and technology teachers can collaborate to build the course from their own interests, strengths, and experience while incorporating existing school and community resources. The course is intended to meet local educational requirements for technology, vocational and science education.

The handbook is a phenomenal document, opening with an introduction to materials science, continuing with an explanation of their goals for the project and the course, discussing how to set up a classroom environment that is conducive to student exploration, then covering an entire year's worth of classroom activities. 

Admittedly, the project was begun in 1986, published in 1994, and 'cleared for release in 2008.'

Some of the language and activities are dated, and the materials sources aren't remotely current. 

But this is the grandfather of the materials science course at Princeton High School, the forerunner of the ASM summer camps, this is the granddaddy of us all.

Thanks, ants...thants.