An atom can gain or lose electrons to become an ion. An ion is an atom with an electrical charge. Adding or removing electrons from an atom does not change which element it is, just the overall electrical charge. The only way to change the identity of an atom is to change the number of protons.
At the core of a chlorophyll molecule is a Magnesium ion (Mg[sup]++[/sup]) whose positive charge means the electrons associated with four nearby Nitrogen atoms are loosely attached and easily excited by incoming sunlight. When such an electron is excited, the excitation energy traverses an intricate path involving, among other processes, interaction with Manganese ions in the photosynthesis reaction center.
When magnesium burns in air, it burns with a brilliant, white light. That is why it is often used in flares and fireworks. Magnesium had also been used in disposable flash bulbs to generate light for photography, but this use has been largely supplanted by other sources of illumination. Burning magnesium also produces some ultraviolet light, so looking at it should be avoided, else permanent vision damage can occur. Magnesium metal and its alloys are explosive hazards; they are highly flammable in their pure form when molten or in powder or in ribbon form. Burning or molten magnesium metal reacts violently with water.
When magnesium metal burns, it reaches about 5,610 °F.
ETA: the Sun’s photosphere is about 10,000 °F.
Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian novel by Ray Bradbury published in 1953. It is regarded as one of his best works. The novel presents a future American society where books are outlawed and “firemen” burn any that are found. The title refers to the temperature that Bradbury asserted to be the autoignition temperature of paper. In reality, scientists place the autoignition temperature of paper anywhere from high 440 degrees Fahrenheit to some 30 degrees hotter, depending on the study and type of paper.
NM, ninja’d by Elvis.
Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit was born in the city of Danzig, Poland in 1686, but lived most of his life in the Dutch Republic. His parents died when he was 14 from eating poisonous mushrooms.
To convert to / from Fahrenheit and Celsius:
°F = (°C * 9/5) + 32
°C = (°F - 32) * 5/9
To find where Fahrenheit and Celsius are equal, set F = C and solve. Fahrenheit and Celsius are equal at -40°.
Easy way to convert C to F in your head.
Multiply by 2.
Subtract 1/10 from that.
Add 32.
So 20C => 40 => 36 => 68.
For reverse, subtract 32, add 1/10, divide by 2.
So 68 => 36 => 40 => 20. This is inexact, for precision add 1/9, but adding 1/10 is much easier and close enough.
For outside temps, just double C and add 30 to get F (15C x 2 = 30, add 30 and get 60). This is NOT good for cooking or scientific experiments.
Anders Celsius’ thermometer was calibrated with a value of 100° for the freezing point of water and 0° for the boiling point. In 1745, a year after Celsius’ death at age 43 due to tuberculosis, the temperature scale was reversed by Carl Linnaeus to make for more practical measurement. Celsius originally called his scale centigrade derived from the Latin for “hundred steps”. For years it was simply referred to as the Swedish thermometer.
Swedish musicians Benny Anderson and Bjorn Ulvaeus have made more money from the grand rights (money paid to the song writers of musicals for every live performance) on Mamma Mia! than they ever did when in ABBA.
Babybjörn is a Swedish family-owned company specializing in the manufacturing of baby products. It was founded in 1961 by Björn Jakobson.
The company’s first product was a bouncing cradle but Babybjörn is today most known for its baby carriers.
Tennis Star Björn Borg’s translates into literal English as “bear castle.”
When Nunavut split off from the Northwest Territories in 1999, one of the most contentious issues was which one would get the polar bear licence plate. The NWT kept it and allowed Nunavut to use it, but Nunavut has recently gone to a standardised plate.
In the scene where a gun is fired at the Mount Rushmore visitors center in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1959 thriller North by Northwest, you can see a little boy in the crowd cover his ears just before the gun goes off.
Pre-sculptured Mount Rushmore is a geological example of a batholith, a large emplacement of igneous intrusive rock that forms from cooled magma deep in the Earth’s crust. Another example of a surface-visible batholith is in the British Virgin Islands, on a section of beach called The Baths…
Although he denied it publicly, John Gutzon Borglum, creator of the Presidents on Mt Rushmore and other monumental sculptures, was a member of the Ku Klux Klan. He was one of the six knights who sat on the Imperial Koncilium.
Borglum designed the North Carolina Monument on Seminary Ridge at the Gettysburg Battlefield, Gettysburg, Pa. The cast bronze sculpture depicts a wounded Confederate officer encouraging his men to push forward during Pickett’s Charge. Borglum made arrangements for an airplane to fly over the monument during the dedication ceremony on July 3, 1929. During the sculpture’s unveiling, the plane scattered roses across the field as a salute to those North Carolinians who had fought and died at Gettysburg.
Bronze, known for over 6,000 years, has relatively few modern industrial uses. It is still used for ships propellers, and musical instruments, especially cymbals. Otherwise, it is mostly ornamental. But during the Bronze Age, it was the hardest metal known to man.
The Seven Ages of Man comes from the Shakespeare play “As You Like It”. The passage is below:
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
Then, the whining school-boy with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then, a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden, and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then, the justice,
In fair round belly, with a good capon lined,
With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws, and modern instances,
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.