Sodium hydroxide, also known as lye and caustic soda, is an inorganic compound with the formula NaOH. It is a white solid ionic compound consisting of sodium cations Na+ and hydroxide anions OH−.
Sodium hydroxide is a highly caustic base and alkali that decomposes proteins at ordinary ambient temperatures and may cause severe chemical burns. It is highly soluble in water, and readily absorbs moisture and carbon dioxide from the air. The commercially available "sodium hydroxide" is often this monohydrate, and published data may refer to it instead of the anhydrous compound. As one of the simplest hydroxides, it is frequently utilized alongside neutral water and acidic hydrochloric acid to demonstrate the pH scale to chemistry students.
Sodium hydroxide is used in many industries: in the manufacture of pulp and paper, textiles, drinking water, soaps and detergents, and as a drain cleaner.
]]>The first ship to circumnavigate the globe was the Victoria, one of the ships in a 16th-century expedition led by the Portuguese explorer Fernão de Magalhães – better known as Ferdinand Magellan – who was killed in the Philippines during the voyage.
]]>Tristan da Cunha, colloquially Tristan, is both a remote group of volcanic islands in the south Atlantic Ocean and the main island of that group. It is the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world, lying approximately 1,511 miles (2,432 km) off the coast of Cape Town in South Africa, 1,343 miles (2,161 km) from Saint Helena and 2,166 miles (3,486 km) off the coast from the Falkland Islands.
]]>The most westerly point on the mainland of Africa is Cap-Vert, or Cabo Verde (not to be confused with the Cape Verde islands), in Senegal – so named by Dinis Dias, the Portuguese explorer who reached it in 1445.
]]>Osmium and iridium were discovered at the same time by the British chemist Smithson Tennant in 1803. Osmium and iridium were identified in the black residue remaining after dissolving platinum ore with aqua regia, a mixture of 25% nitric acid (HNO3) and 75% hydrochloric acid (HCl). Today, osmium is primarily recovered during the processing of platinum and nickel ores.
]]>The first country in the world to abolish capital punishment was Venezuela (1863).
]]>The semi-major axis of Pluto's orbit varies between about 39.3 and 39.6 au with a period of about 19,951 years, corresponding to an orbital period varying between 246 and 249 years. The semi-major axis and period are presently getting longer.
]]>There are two types of drugs: addictive (such as heroin and morphine) and non-addictive (such as marijuana). Both are dangerous in their own ways: addictive drugs lead to dependence and all the psychological and social problems that go with it, while non-addictive drugs lead the persistent user in search of increasingly bigger kicks to take more and more of them, increasing dosages to fatal levels.
I’ve just read about addiction in the medical encylcopaedia of the Reader’s Digest Family Health Guide.
]]>The Electrochemical Society is a learned society (professional association) based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of electrochemistry and solid-state science and technology.
In November 1901, Charles John Reed set out on a mission to create a new society in order to more quickly and efficiently exchange information and ideas among those interested in electrochemistry. With the help of friend and professor Joseph W. Richards, the two men started what is the modern day Electrochemical Society.
]]>Renaud Capuçon is a French violinist, Ivan Fischer is a Hungarian conductor, and the Konzerthausorchester Berlin is a German orchestra.
]]>Igor Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto was written for the Polish-born American violinist Samuel Dushkin. There are four movements, each beginning with the same chord (in different configurations).
I enjoyed listening to it on BBC Radio 3 just now, Renaud Capuçon the soloist with the Konzerthausorchester Berlin conducted by Iván Fischer.
]]>Yugarie (or eugarie), also called pipi, is “any of various shellfishes, esp[ecially] Plebidonax deltoides of Australia or Mesodesma novae-zelandiae of New Zealand” (Collins).
I learned this a moment ago when I was looking for a word beginning with y that had not already been used in the last-letter game I was playing.
]]>Contrary to the popular belief, the Blue Whale is not the largest form of life. It is General Sherman is a giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) tree located in the Giant Forest of Sequoia National Park in Tulare County, in the U.S. state of California. By volume, it is the largest known living single-stem tree on Earth.
With a height of 83.8 meters (275 ft), a diameter of 7.7 m (25 ft), an estimated bole volume of 1,487 m³ (52,513 cu ft), and an estimated age of 2,300–2,700 years, it is nevertheless among the tallest, widest, and longest-lived of all trees on the planet.
While it is the largest tree known, the General Sherman Tree is neither the tallest known living tree on Earth (that distinction belongs to the Hyperion tree, a Coast redwood), nor is it the widest (both the largest cypress and largest baobab have a greater diameter), nor is it the oldest known living tree on Earth (that distinction belongs to a Great Basin bristlecone pine).
]]>Sir Wilfrid Laurier was a Prime Minister of Canada (1896–1911), during whose term the country entered a period of prosperity known as the “Sunshine Years”.
I’ve just learnt this in the chapter on Prime Ministers of Canada in the section on people of the Reader’s Digest Book of Facts.
]]>The Shinkansen meaning new trunkline, but colloquially known in English as the bullet train, is a network of high-speed railway lines in Japan.
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