Spotlight on Corrosion

This video from the National Association of Corrosion Engineers (NACE) plays with the music so manipulatively. It opens with PBS-style music, like we're about to watch an episode of Masterpiece Theater and then shifts to ominous music before closing with hopeful, soaring music at 4:30.

Admittedly, the video is becoming fairly dated at this point, having been produced in 2005 but clearly relying on statistics and video from before that. And, let's be honest, the difference in video quality in the past ten years is fairly drastic. Still, the video is a great introduction to corrosion, showing some of the significant costs of corrosion as well as some pretty spectacular examples (Hawaii airline accident, Charlotte Motor Speedway bridge collapse) of what can go wrong because of corrosion.

Thanks, as always to NACE for being a major sponsor of our summer teacher camps with their donations of a huge number of cKits, one for each of our summer camper.

Plus they produced the video in Spanish!



asd

Removing Tarnish from Silver

Usually when I turn to Compound Interest, I'm looking to find a gorgeous infographic explaining some aspect of chemistry. Today's post from them (him, really), isn't graphical in the least. Instead, it's an in-depth exploration of one of the NACE labs that we perform in our summer, teacher camps: Quicksilver.

Why does the sodium bicarbonate need to be there? Andy explains.

Why do we need the salt? Andy explains.

Where does the rotten egg smell come from? Andy explains.

Why do people still buy polishing plates for as much as $30? Even Andy can't explain that.

Compound Interest is a British blog through which Andy Brunning, a chemistry teacher with a flair for graphic design, posts outstanding chemistry-themed infographics.

Cutest Corrosion PSA Ever

Yeah, that's about right. It's just about the cutest corrosion PSA ever.

It's also one of the best corrosion introductions I've seen. The kids go through a quick survey of preventing corrosion via galvanic protection, material selection, and coating technologies. They also remind us why corrosion is an important topic to consider when designing any piece of infrastructure - like a pretty nice playground.

And then they play.

Always remember to play at the end of any bit of work.

As an aside, the PSA is technically for an exhibit at the Orlando Science Center. I happen to remember that one of our campers at the corrosion mini-camp at Akron in the late summer 2012 was an exhibit designer for the Orlando Science Center. I wonder...