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Questions tagged [chemistry]

For questions about the study of chemical reactions, dynamics and related phenomena

If the concerned question is about a more specific area of Chemistry (such as , etc.), this tag should be used along with the tag of that specific area of Chemistry.

111 questions
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Who was the first to weigh chemical reaction products?

It is said that Lavoisier and Lomonosov both discovered that the cumulated mass of reactants is conserved. My question is simple: who (and when) started weighing chemical products before and after forcing them react?
DanielC
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Depiction of molecules and reactions prior to the introduction of Lewis structures?

In chemistry, especially organic chemistry, molecules and reactions are usually schematically depicted by Lewis structures which provide a representation that makes it easy to grasp the structure and bonding situation of a molecule. But according to…
Philipp
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How did Staudinger demonstrate that polymers are high molecular weight covalently bonded molecules?

Hermann Staudinger was awarded the 1953 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work demonstrating that polymers are high molecular weight covalently bonded molecules. Prior to his work, the consensus among chemists was that polymers were loosely…
Colin McFaul
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What rule or rules did Madelung discover, exactly?

There are two widely used rules of thumb to determine which subshells are filled in a neutral atom in its ground state: Electrons are assigned to subshells in order of increasing value of $n + \ell$. For subshells with the same value of $n +…
John Baez
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When did people first become concerned about mercury in fish?

I can't find any information about the history of mercury in fish as a public health concern. When was it first recognized that fish contain higher levels of mercury than land animals? How long have we had the technology to measure the amount of…
Metamorphic
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Why Saytzeff and Zaitsev Rules are named differently?

Saytzeff and Zaitsev rules are the same thing.Then why are they named differently?Some books favour to use Saytzeff while some prefer Zaitsev.Why are different names used for the same thing? Thanks for any help!!
Soham
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Were Michael Sendivogius findings in Chemistry considered by him to be Alchemy?

According to Michael Sendivogius Michael Sendivogius (/ˌsɛndɪˈvoʊdʒiəs/; Polish: Michał Sędziwój; 2 February 1566 – 1636) was a Polish alchemist, philosopher, and medical doctor. A pioneer of chemistry, he developed ways of purification and…
Pablo
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A reason for why Leucippus isn't credited the original "atomist" in the norm?

His exact contributions are difficult to disentangle from those of his mentor Leucippus, as they are often mentioned together in texts. Their speculation on atoms, taken from Leucippus, bears a passing and partial resemblance to the…
M.A.R.
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How and when did scientists first determine that hydrogen was the lightest element?

Cavendish first isolated hydrogen and recognized it for what it was; Lavoisier realized that water consisted of hydrogen and oxygen; Dalton used hydrogen as the basis for relative atomic weights by giving it the value of 1 and assuming that the…
Gilbert Reid
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Why are the terms electrophile/nucleophile used? Are they not identical to Lewis acids/bases?

My understanding is that the above pairs of terms are identical in definition, indicating acceptors/donors of an electron pair. So, why are both used?
imrobert
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Why didn't Boyle made a correlation between V and T of a gas (and similarly between P and T)?

I was just reading about The Gas Laws of Boyle, Charles and Avogadro from a general college book Chemistry (7th edition, Zumdahl&Zumdahl). Boyle was the one who discovered a correlation between pressure and volume of a gas. I was left wondering...…
thunder
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How common were death and mutilation among chemists 1750-1950?

Several famous chemists were blown up, poisoned, blinded, mutilated or got lethally sick by radiation. Are these isolated anecdotes or was researching chemistry a truly dangerous job during the period of, say, 1750 to 1950? Since the casualty ratio…
LocalFluff
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Fritz Haber and nitrogen fixing: Was there a movement to increase the population?

I read a dramatic statistic something like 3 out of 5 living humans owe their existence to food that could be grown due to Haber's work. But was there a time when anyone said, we need to be able to dramatically increase the world population? Was it…
releseabe
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