{"id":1561,"date":"2019-11-14T22:01:15","date_gmt":"2019-11-14T22:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/?p=1561"},"modified":"2019-11-14T22:01:15","modified_gmt":"2019-11-14T22:01:15","slug":"11-15-19-gypsum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/11-15-19-gypsum\/","title":{"rendered":"11.15.19 Gypsum"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Asa Hunt House Update Part Eight<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This morning we’re talking about your favorite thing:\nChemistry!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let’s start with the letter S, which stands for Sulfur. It\nis the 10th most abundant element. In nature it exists as a pale yellow,\nnon-metallic chalky solid or powder. Compounds of sulfur provide nasty odors to\nskunks, stinkbugs, rotten eggs, hot springs and volcanoes. Maybe that’s why the\nancients – who called it Brimstone – equated Sulfur with the wrath of God. The\nmost common application of Sulfur today is in Sulfuric Acid, which is used in\nbatteries and fertilizers, as well as in many chemical processes.\nUnfortunately, when burned, these chemicals create Sulfur Dioxide, one of the\nfive worst pollutants. So, yeah, wrath of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sulfur likes Oxygen. In fact, each S likes to hang out in the\nmiddle of four O’s, which creates SO4,\nwhich is an ion known as Sulfate. And the cool thing about Sulfate is that it\nlikes both oil and water, and will happily hang with either, or both at the\nsame time. This makes Sulfate a powerful surfactant, which provides the foaming\naction in soaps, shampoos and detergents. Isn’t it ironic that Cleanliness is\nnext to Godliness?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sulfate is pretty friendly with Calcium, which is a dull\ngray metal with a yellow tinge. Calcium is the 5th most abundant metal in the\nworld. It is best known as the secret to hard bones, but it’s a softy, and\nhooks up with lots of other chemicals. For example, when it combines with\nSulfate, it creates CaSO4, or Calcium\nSulfate. That’s the salt that makes your tap water hard, gets everything all\ncrusty, and eventually destroys your dishwasher. Wrath of God indeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But here’s a funny thing about Calcium Sulfate. It really\nlikes water, and reacts with it in various ways, creating unique new things\ncalled hydrates. When there is no liquid water for Calcium Sulfate to play\nwith, it exists as an “anhydrite” which pulls in whatever water it\ncan get from the air around it. That makes it a desiccant, which dries out any\nenvironment you put it in. Drug companies and shoe manufacturers often put little\npacks of Calcium Sulfate into their packaging to prevent spoilage. God I hate\nthose things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Calcium Sulfate can get just a little bit of water it\nhydrates into CaSO4 + \u00bd H2O, or a hemihydrate. This material is famously\nfound in huge deposits outside the capital of France, so it is best known as\nPlaster of Paris. It’s a chalky powder, with a unique ability to dissolve in\nwater into a paste, and dry out again into a hard mass. It’s good for making\nsculptures. And for forming a cast, which comes in handy should you forget to\neat your Calcium and break your leg. God forbid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If there is more water available Calcium Sulfate hydrates\ninto CaSO4 + 2 H2O, which is commonly known as Gypsum. This is a soft chalky rock\nwhich comes in many colors and so is a wonderful thing for toddlers to use to\ndraw pictures on the driveway. But folks have also come to realize that it is\nthe best thing to hang on your wall. That’s because a sheet of Gypsum – also\nknown as wallboard or sheet rock – provides a unique water-based defense\nagainst disaster. When a room heats up during a fire, the Gypsum reacts by\ndehydrating. Water evaporates in a chemical reaction wherein the Gypsum\nactually cools down. This protects the wood frame and other materials behind\nthe sheet rock, and gives time for firefighters to arrive and hose the place\ndown. Thank God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gypsum was at least partially responsible for saving the Asa\nHunt House from the flames about a year ago, on December 5th, 2018. And just\nthis past week, the whole house got a new covering of sheet rock, transforming\nwhat had been framing and pipes and wires and insulation back into rooms and\nliving spaces. Good God it looks like a home again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can see a slide show of the bright new interior at <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n11.5.19 Let There Be White<\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Asa Hunt House Update Part Eight This morning we’re talking about your favorite thing: Chemistry! Let’s start with the letter S, which stands for Sulfur. It is the 10th most abundant element. In nature it exists as a pale yellow, non-metallic chalky solid or powder. Compounds of sulfur provide nasty…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1562,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[237,1732,1733],"class_list":["post-1561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-chemistry","tag-gypsum","tag-sheet-rock"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Gypsum.jpg?fit=2009%2C1130&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1561"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1563,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1561\/revisions\/1563"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}