# Chemical equations **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 21, 1999, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chemical-equations/4967 "1999-11-21T19:02:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![torq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@torq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/torq)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 1999, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chemical-equations/4967/21 "1999-11-23T20:26:00Z")
I should have called l “orbital type” instead of “shell type”. For historical reasons, there are letters that go with the numbers: l=0: s (sharp) l=1: p (primary or principal, I forget which) l=2: d (diffuse) l=3: f (fundamental) l=4: g (the letter after f, and so on) ---
**Author:** ![NanoByte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecc23a/32.png) [@NanoByte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NanoByte)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 1999, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chemical-equations/4967/22 "1999-11-24T04:24:00Z")
Well, it’s not clear here whether we’re supposed to be able to calculate the “18” on up just from what you give us here. First off, you didn’t define ‘combination’ in the way you use it here. Then Sue has ‘s’, ‘p’, ‘d’ and ‘f’ where you have ‘n’, ‘l’, ‘s’, ‘p’, ‘d’, ‘f’ and ‘g’. Don’t think I’m gonna pass this course. . .and here I was thinking of being the _n_the world power capable of nuclear exploding nuclear-fusion weapons. Guess I’ll go fission instead. Ray (. . .and what ever happened to ‘spin’, ‘color’, ‘beauty’, ‘top/bottom’, etc.?) ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 1999, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chemical-equations/4967/23 "1999-11-24T04:44:00Z")
Hey, we do have access to super- and subscripting. Put _sub_ and _/sub_ or _sup_ and _/sup_ in angle brackets around the character. So… 2H[sub]2[/sub] + 0[sub]2[/sub] = 2H[sub]2[/sub]O Peace. ---
**Author:** ![NanoByte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecc23a/32.png) [@NanoByte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NanoByte)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 1999, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chemical-equations/4967/24 "1999-11-24T05:27:00Z")
Oh[sub]2[/sub] have such \E\ service! And[sub1[/sub] that we don’t even (½)[sub]2[/sub] call[sub]4[/sub]! Ray[sub]U-boat[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![NanoByte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecc23a/32.png) [@NanoByte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NanoByte)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 1999, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chemical-equations/4967/25 "1999-11-24T05:37:00Z")
Oh[sub]2[/sub] have such \E\ service! And[sub]1[/sub] that we don’t even (½)[sub]2[/sub] call[sub]4[/sub]! Ray[sub]U-boat[/sub] (_ **Now** _ I get your angle.) ---
**Author:** ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 1999, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chemical-equations/4967/26 "1999-11-24T22:15:00Z")
Anyone ever heard of Honclbrif? It is a way to remember the naturally occuring diatomic molecules. H O N Cl Br I F Just my two cents. ---
**Author:** ![mr\_john](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@mr\_john](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mr_john)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 1999, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chemical-equations/4967/27 "1999-11-24T22:50:00Z")
Honclbrif? Thought that was what you called underwear that keeps falling to your feet. Rmat, beleave me when I say I would not condescend to condescend to you. See if you can find that old asimov book, it’s out of print. he wrote a whole series of books explaning science. I read um when I was 12 or so and look at me now. Hmmm, quite an endorsement. I have always been leary of anything called “…made simple” it is either too simple or it aint at all. but his stuff was comprehensable. now Rmat could you tell me what mo and nanny mean by ANGLE brackets i been over in About… taking a test and i flunked. * * * “Pardon me while I have a strange interlude.”-Marx ---
**Author:** ![torq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@torq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/torq)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 1999, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chemical-equations/4967/28 "1999-11-24T23:02:00Z")
By “combinations” I meant “combinations of the four quantum numbers”. Think of them as addresses for very small apartments, each of which can hold only one electron. I can go into where the 2 \* n[sup]2[/sup] combinations (or “addresses”) come from in more detail, with examples, if you’d like. n, l, m, s =\> quantum numbers (sometimes n, l, m[sub]l[/sub], m[sub]s[/sub] are used instead) s, p, d, f, g, etc. =\> references to the value of the l quantum number ---
**Author:** ![NanoByte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecc23a/32.png) [@NanoByte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NanoByte)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 1999, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chemical-equations/4967/29 "1999-11-25T00:29:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Rmat, beleave me. . . That’s something like beheading, isn’t it. . .only, instead, making a nude sapling out of you, I theenk. Ray (I’ll have to puzzle out some more what torq has said in toto to date.) ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecccb3/32.png) [@Lord\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 1999, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chemical-equations/4967/30 "1999-11-25T00:45:00Z")
I know next to nothing about chemistry formulas, but mr john, check About again. these ( \< \> ) are angle brackets. ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 1999, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chemical-equations/4967/31 "1999-11-27T04:43:00Z")
( ) --Parenthesis \< \> – Angle bracket – Square (or rectangular) bracket { } – curly bracket (heh, I’m willing to bet there’s a more official name for this, and I’m willing to bet someone here knows it) The UBB codes on this board use the square brackets. HTML codes use the angle brackets. So, here’s a example: \H\2\O is \water\.  H[sub]2[/sub]O[sub]2[/sub] is _hydrogen peroxide_.\ Will yield: \H[sub]2[/sub]O is _water_.  H202 is _hydrogen peroxide_. \ Using an **i** for an italics code works both in UBB and HTML.  However, the **sub** code only works in the angle brackets of HTML. Peace. ---
**Author:** ![NanoByte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecc23a/32.png) [@NanoByte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NanoByte)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 1999, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chemical-equations/4967/32 "1999-11-27T08:22:00Z")
“Curly brackets” = ‘braces’. Ray (I wonder if there’s a way to make shelf brackets.) ---
**Author:** ![Andy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/aeb1de/32.png) [@Andy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 1999, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chemical-equations/4967/33 "1999-11-28T02:24:00Z")
So if oxygen has two 'hooks, does that mean ozone is a triangle? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Andy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/aeb1de/32.png) [@Andy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 1999, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chemical-equations/4967/34 "1999-11-28T02:48:00Z")
And what about XeF2? ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecccb3/32.png) [@Lord\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 1999, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chemical-equations/4967/35 "1999-11-28T04:22:00Z")
geeeezzz, android. This thread barely nailed down what curly brackets are. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 1999, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chemical-equations/4967/36 "1999-11-28T07:49:00Z")
> [@](#): > > All of the elements at the far right of the periodic table, which have 8 electrons in their outer shell, are called inert gasses, because it is so hard to make them react with anything. - Sue > [@](#): > > And what about XeF2? > > - Android Because xenon is in the 5th period, it’s outer shell electrons are bound less tightly (they are further from the nucleus & the strength of the attraction between an electron & its nucleus is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the nucleus.) So if any “inert” gases can be made to react with anything by giving up an electron or 2, xenon would react more easily than krypton, which would react more easily than argon, neon & helium. Fluorine, in turn, is the most reactive member of it’s family, since the empty space in its outer shell is closer to the nucleus than, say, the empty space in the outer shell of bromine, or iodine. Under very-difficult-to-achieve laboratory conditions, xenon can be made to react with fluorine to form XeF[sub]2[/sub]. * * * Sue from El Paso Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted. ---
**Author:** ![Andy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/aeb1de/32.png) [@Andy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 1999, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chemical-equations/4967/37 "1999-11-28T11:52:00Z")
I’m a chemist, I was only kidding. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chemical-equations/4967.md?page=1)