IB Chemistry Blog

The Natural Sciences Group of the IBDP department of Geitonas School visits the NSTA Conference in Philadelphia and presents the International Baccalaureate to the American science teachers.

Thursday, March 18 2:00–3:00 PM

Ready to Join the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP)? Here Are Tips and Practices That Work!

Philadelphia Marriott, Franklin 6

New Physics/Chemistry/Biology teacher at the IBDP? Discover its curriculum, assessment and correlation with the AP program. IBDP-specific resources and practices from experienced teachers.

Presenters: Nikos Tasopoulos (Geitonas School: Vari, Greece); Ilias Liakatas (Geitonas School: Vari, Greece)

Listen to this radio program (Radiolab) broadcast by WNYC radio station about the Placebo effect discussed in Option D.

A new presentation on Pharmaceutical Products with an overview of Option D is available on the Medicines and Drugs page.

A gift for the New Year.
Steve Jobs (CEO and founder of Apple) tells us how to live before we die.
Enjoy!

Visit the Genetic Science Learning Center from the University of Utah.
Interesting, useful and friendly presented material for Chemistry and Biology students.

Dr. Schambaugh, of the University of Oklahoma School of Chemical Engineering, Final Exam question for May of 1997. Dr. Schambaugh is known for asking questions such as, “why do airplanes fly?” on his final exams. His one and only final exam question in May 1997 for his Momentum, Heat and Mass Transfer II class was: “Is hell exothermic or endothermic? Support your answer with proof.”

Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle’s Law or some variant. One student, however, wrote the following:

“First, We postulate that if souls exist, then they must have some mass. If they do, then a mole of souls can also have a mass. So, at what rate are souls moving into hell and at what rate are souls leaving? I think we can safely assume that once a soul gets to hell, it will not leave.

Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for souls entering hell, let’s look at the different religions that exist in the world today. Some of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, then you will go to hell. Since there are more than one of these religions and people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all people and souls go to hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in hell to increase exponentially.

Now, we look at the rate of change in volume in hell. Boyle’s Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in hell to stay the same, the ratio of the mass of souls and volume needs to stay constant. Two options exist:

1. If hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter hell, then the temperature and pressure in hell will increase until all hell breaks loose.
2. If hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until hell freezes over.

So which is it? If we accept the quote given to me by Theresa Manyan during Freshman year, “that it will be a cold night in hell before I sleep with you” and take into account the fact that I still have NOT succeeded in having sexual relations with her, then Option 2 cannot be true…Thus, hell is exothermic.”

The student, Tim Graham, got the only A.

Here are some brief notes on how to add axis labels in graphs using Excel2007.
Instructions were kindly provided by Penelope.

-write the values of your data in the cells (x-axis on the left, y-axis on the right)
-click on Insert->scatter->scatter with only markers
-click on Layout
-axis titles:

-primary Horizontal axis title->title below axis
-primary Vertical axis title->rotated title

A gallery of photos of 3D molecular structures of organic compounds have been added to the photos.liakatas.org site.

Here is a sample of ammonia.

New videos on bonding have been added in Topic 4.
This is one of them on hybridization.