Subject: Can someone please explain?
Posted by: Mixamatosis
Date: Jan 21 17
I've read that it's dangerous to mix ammonia and bleach. Variously I've read that it can produce deadly cyanide gas, chlorine gas (which is said to be bad for you) and even explosions.
However swimming pools are kept fit for use with chlorine, and our urine contains ammonia but then we may clean toilets with bleach. Also many cleaning products contain either ammonia or bleach and it would be easy to use them unthinkingly in combination.
How is it that people aren't generally harmed by these dangers when swimming in swimming pools or doing daily cleaning, or are we being harmed at low level and is the harm cumulative?
Posted by: Mixamatosis
Date: Jan 21 17
I've read that it's dangerous to mix ammonia and bleach. Variously I've read that it can produce deadly cyanide gas, chlorine gas (which is said to be bad for you) and even explosions.
However swimming pools are kept fit for use with chlorine, and our urine contains ammonia but then we may clean toilets with bleach. Also many cleaning products contain either ammonia or bleach and it would be easy to use them unthinkingly in combination.
How is it that people aren't generally harmed by these dangers when swimming in swimming pools or doing daily cleaning, or are we being harmed at low level and is the harm cumulative?
526 replies. On page 9 of 27 pages. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27
brm50diboll 
|
The asteroid belt is a treasure trove of information about our solar system and its origin. Not all asteroids belong to the asteroid belt, which is traditionally located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. There are near Earth asteroids, some of which cross Earth's orbit, there are Jupiter Trojans, which follow Jupiter's orbit about 60° ahead or behind the position of Jupiter itself, and their are outer asteroids beyond Jupiter's orbit. Many people have the misconception (perhaps fueled by Star Wars) of asteroid "swarms". No such thing. Asteroids are quite far from each other most of the time. The asteroid belt is mostly empty space. Every once in awhile, two asteroids may come relatively close to each other (say, within the Earth-Moon distance), but the vast majority of the time, one will simply shoot past the other. Extremely rarely asteroids will collide. The asteroid belt is not that active a place in a human lifespan. The total amount of material presently in the asteroid belt is less than the mass of Earth's Moon, although in the early days of the solar system it was a much more crowded place. The existence of the asteroid belt today is due to the effect of Jupiter's gravity, which caused the planetesimals in that region to move too rapidly to be able to aggregate together to form a planet. Most were flung out of the belt, eventually colliding with planets in either the inner or outer solar systems. The ones that remained in the belt, when they did collide with each other, did so too fast to aggregate most of the time. Instead, they shattered each other into even smaller asteroids. There are several different types of asteroids, depending on where exactly they originated from and the larger "parent body" they are fragments of. Some asteroids are really just "burnt out comets" that have lost their outer ice and gaseous layers. Recently, the Dawn spacecraft has greatly expanded our knowledge of asteroids by intensively? studying two of its largest members. I will discuss that next time. Reply #161. Nov 26 17, 3:46 PM |
| brm50diboll
|
There are, not their are. Wish we had an edit function for these boards. Reply #162. Nov 26 17, 3:47 PM |
| brm50diboll
|
The Dawn spacecraft has explored both Vesta and Ceres, two of the largest and earliest-discovered asteroids in the Asteroid Belt. Technically, Ceres is known as 1 Ceres and Vesta as 4 Vesta, as the number is their asteroid number, which is the order in which they were discovered. The history of the discovery of the first four asteroids is instructive. When they were first discovered, they were considered to be planets just as Uranus was, but as more and more of them were found, realizing that they were much smaller than the other planets and that their orbits often overlapped, the first four discovered we're downgraded to asteroid or "minor planet". Fast forwarding to Pluto's recent demotion, a new category, called "dwarf planet" was created and Ceres was placed into it, but not any other asteroid. Some would argue that Ceres, now that it is called a dwarf planet, is not an asteroid, but the reclassification did not remove its asteroid designation, so technically Ceres is both a dwarf planet and an asteroid. Ceres is much larger than the other asteroids, including Vesta, but also much smaller than the true planets, and, furthermore, there is good reason to believe Ceres did not originate in its current position but from the outer solar system and that gravitational interactions caused it to move inward into the present asteroid belt, so it may well be that Ceres is not an asteroid in the traditional sense, but an interloper that finds itself smack dab in the middle of today's Asteroid Belt but is not closely related to its true members. Dawn orbited and studied Vesta first, then left orbit and went to Ceres, where it is still orbiting at present. Although Vesta is considerably smaller than Ceres, Vesta does have the distinction of being the only asteroid that is (occasionally) visible to the naked eye of persons with normal vision (when Earth and Vesta get as close to each other as their orbits allow, which only happens once every few years for a month or so.) This is true because Vesta, despite being smaller than Ceres, has a much higher albedo, which means it reflects a much higher percentage of sunlight that falls on it than Ceres does. Ceres is actually a very dark body, containing a large percentage of carbonaceous material more characteristic of the outer solar system than most other asteroids. Vesta is also very unusual for an asteroid in that it is a differentiated body, with a crust, mantle, and core like the terrestrial planets. Vesta is probably a fragment of a planetesimal that was shattered apart by collisions eons ago. Other smaller asteroids, called "Vestoids" are believed to be other fragments of the parent body that Vesta once belonged to. Ceres, as a dwarf planet, is large enough to be roughly spherical in appearance, which other asteroids are not. Data from the Dawn spacecraft suggests that Ceres may have subsurface liquid water, perhaps even a subsurface ocean, as Jupiter's moon Europa is also believed to have. Planets, moons, asteroids, and comets, particularly the larger ones, are big enough to be called worlds. Dawn has shown us already that Ceres and Vesta are much more complicated than just giant rocks in space. The study of these and other similar bodies promises much in the coming decades. Reply #163. Dec 09 17, 5:27 PM |
| brm50diboll
|
Were, not we're. Embarrassing. I hate typos. Reply #164. Dec 09 17, 5:28 PM |
Mixamatosis
|
Brian, Have you ever thought of writing a science fiction novel? Reply #165. Dec 10 17, 4:57 AM |
| brm50diboll
|
I'm not really a good writer. I consider myself to be an honest person who is aware of his weaknesses. One of my biggest weaknesses is impatience. I don't think I have the self discipline to write a novel. I would have a hard time writing even a short story. A few paragraphs is about all I have the patience to write. Even on FunTrivia, I've written a few individual questions but have been unable to complete a whole quiz. A good book develops characters carefully. I think I would rely too much on exposition and give away way too much in Chapter 1 if I tried to write a novel. But thank you for the question. Reply #166. Dec 10 17, 6:30 PM |
| Mixamatosis
|
What a pity. You do have the knowledge and the interest in science and science fiction I believe. I thought patience could be a learned thing. Some writers get so absorbed in their writing and characters I don't think they notice the time passing, but no matter. If it's not your thing, it's not. Reply #167. Dec 12 17, 1:16 AM |
| brm50diboll
|
I do have a full-time job as a Chemistry teacher. Just playing FT and averaging 5000-7000 points a day takes a lot of my remaining free time as it is, so there just isn't much time left to develop any latent writing skills I have. My Shakespeare professor in college thought I had excellent analysis, but I was a bit too direct and not creative enough. He knew I was a Chemistry major though. Just not enough time for me to do everything I am theoretically capable of. Reply #168. Dec 12 17, 9:01 AM |
| Mixamatosis
|
I sometimes forget that not everyone on this site is retired. Reply #169. Dec 12 17, 11:52 AM |
| brm50diboll
|
Jupiter is a fascinating planet, and not just because it is the largest. It has been extensively studied by the Galileo probe and now the Juno probe (among others, beginning with Pioneer). Some people, however, have gone too far, saying Jupiter is a "failed star" or brown dwarf. Not even close. Jupiter's mass is insufficient to qualify as a brown dwarf by over an order of magnitude. It is true Jupiter is overwhelmingly made of hydrogen and helium, like stars, but so was our original solar nebula. The inner planets lacked the gravity to be able to hold on to those light gases, but Jupiter, being a giant planet and located in the cold outer solar system, was able to hold on to the primordial hydrogen and helium. And yes, Jupiter does have more mass in it than the entire rest of the solar system combined (excepting the Sun), but it is still only about 1% the Sun's mass. It is fortunate for us that Jupiter has maintained a stable orbit in the outer solar system. In many extrasolar planetary systems, there are "hot Jupiter's", which are large Jovian planets like our Jupiter which originally formed far from the parent star, but unstable gravitational dynamics caused them to spiral inward to end up in orbits closer to their star than Mercury is to our Sun, and in the process of that spiralling inward, they caused massive devastation to whatever was the original inner planets of that system, flinging them out of the system altogether, or causing them to collide with the "hot Jupiter" or the parent star itself. But our Jupiter sits comfortably in the outer solar system, protecting us. Yes, I said protecting us. Jupiter's massive gravity causes most rogue asteroids and comets to collide with it, thus protecting the inner solar system. If Jupiter did not exist, Earth would've been hit by dozens of times more asteroids and comets than we actually have in our geologic history, with very different results in the evolution of life on our planet. So thank you, Jupiter. Big brother has been looking out for us. Reply #170. Dec 30 17, 2:11 PM |
| Mixamatosis
|
Re Global Warming: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-42736397 Reply #171. Jan 18 18, 12:44 PM |
| brm50diboll
|
The Galilean moons of Jupiter are particularly important to our understanding of the solar system. They are the first moons discovered of a planet other than earth and, of course, are named for their discoverer Galileo, who used his primitive telescope to see them in the early 17th century. It actually does not require a telescope to see them. I have seen them several times myself just using ordinary binoculars. Just aim at Jupiter (easy, since Jupiter is very bright, brighter than any true star in the sky), and you will see the Galilean moons lined up to the sides around Jupiter's equator. The lineup changes from night to night as they orbit at different speeds. Actually, all four of the Galilean moons could be seen with just the naked eye if it weren't for the glare of Jupiter itself. The Galilean moons' existence was actually a strong piece of evidence in support of heliocentric (or Copernican) theory as they clearly show bodies which do *not* orbit the Earth. They very clearly orbit Jupiter, and Galileo's insistence on that point helped get him into trouble with the famous heresy charge against him. These four moons are generally listed from innermost to outermost. The order, beginning with the innermost, is : Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. The specific properties of each of these moons is strongly influenced by their distances from Jupiter, and therefore the strength of Jupiter's gravitational influence on them. Each one of the four is unique in its own right and worthy of discussion unto itself, so next time I will talk about Io, (not "10", or "Ten", as some ignorant newscasters have occasionally referred to it as.) Reply #172. Jan 20 18, 12:57 PM |
| brm50diboll
|
Tried to watch the lunar eclipse this morning, but it was cloudy. But there was an excellent streaming video of it on YouTube. Reply #173. Jan 31 18, 9:32 AM |
| Mixamatosis
|
Food for thought. "The Evaporating Mediterranean Sea" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BemsLUldVAo Reply #174. Feb 04 18, 8:50 AM |
| Mixamatosis
|
P.S. I guess people could and did travel overland from Africa to Europe in those times. Reply #175. Feb 04 18, 8:52 AM |
| brm50diboll
|
It would've been a parched desert full of salt lakes and salt flats. Very few places where anything could've grown. Much worse than today's Sahara desert. Reply #176. Feb 06 18, 10:43 AM |
| brm50diboll
|
An additional point: the drying up of the Mediterranean Sea occurred about six million years ago (and ended 5.33 million years ago, with the reopening of the Strait of Gibraltar), which was well before humans existed. By contrast, Australopithecus afarensis, known as "Lucy", dates to about 3.25 million years. DNA analysis and molecular clock analysis suggests that the line leading to humans and the line leading to chimpanzees separated about 7 million years ago. Whatever protohominids may have existed when the Mediterranean Sea was dry were definitely not humans, and it is questionable whether they were even bipedal at that point. Reply #177. Feb 06 18, 11:02 PM |
| brm50diboll
|
Io is the innermost of the Galilean moons. Because it is the innermost, Jupiter's intense gravity is greatest on Io of the four moons. Specifically, the tidal forces caused by the interaction of Jupiter's gravity with Io's orbital motion is intense enough to cause continuous stretching and compressing of Io's interior, which generates large amounts of internal heat. This was quite surprising initially to astronomers, who expected Io to be a frozen moon. Like its parent planet Jupiter, Io is too far from the sun to get much heat externally and it is too small a body to have been able to retain much of its primordial heat of formation. So when the early space probes, including Voyagers 1&2, showed active volcanoes on Io (the first active volcanoes outside of earth), astronomers were wondering how Io could possibly have enough internal heat to power active volcanoes, until they worked out just how strong Jupiter's gravitational tidal forces on Io really were. The numerous active volcanoes on Io resurface the moon constantly, preventing large amounts of ice from forming on its surface, unlike all the other Galilean moons, which are farther from Jupiter and have less internal heating as their tidal forces are weaker. Reply #178. Feb 09 18, 10:08 PM |
terraorca
|
Aral Sea Reply #179. Feb 18 18, 10:19 PM |
| brm50diboll
|
The Aral Sea is definitely a man-made catastrophe. Diverting river flow for agricultural purposes caused it. However, that cannot happen with the Mediterranean Sea because of inflow of water from the Atlantic through the Strait of Gibraltar. Actually, since the Suez Canal is a sea level canal (unlike the Panama Canal), water can also flow into the Mediterranean now from the Red Sea. I therefore would not worry about the Mediterranean drying up again. Major tectonic events would have to occur for that to happen again, and it would definitely not be a man-made event, unlike the Aral Sea. Nor is it likely to happen for millions of years. The Riviera is safe. Reply #180. Feb 18 18, 11:32 PM |
526 replies. On page 9 of 27 pages. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27
Legal / Conditions of Use
|
|
: