Applying Chemistry to everyday life?

[The Grim Squeaker]

Having finally started proper chemistry studies at university, while watching "Breaking Bad" and suffering from severe stomach acid, I was curious as to whether any chemistry majors could give some interesting or useful examples of applying chemistry for day to day life.
(For example, I researched foods that are bases to help with my stomach acid [coffee, milk, apples, water, bananas. And antiacid pills. None of which are available at 3AM).

So, give examples of your chemistry use in everyday life for fun and/or profit!

[Broomstick]

Cooking. Especially things like quick breads that rely on an acid+base reaction to generate gas for rising (as opposed to using yeast), but really, pretty much all cooking.

[The Grim Squeaker]

I'm not asking "What is chemistry good for".
I'm asking about cool stories or examples of applied chemistry is day to day life my people here.

(Also, that cooking example of yours made me think of House )

[Broomstick]

Uh, Grim - I cook every freakin' day. It's chemistry. It's daily life. Cooking is chemistry.

But for another example - over in venting I posted a recipe for antacid using sodium bicarbonate. Go read it. And then go to a doctor and find out why the hell you have so much heartburn trouble at your tender age.

[UnderAGreySky]

Cleaning, too. Using cleaning liquids to remove grime, or special solvents to remove rust. A lot of it boils down to how the liquid should have the right components to break down grime but not the vessel it's in.

[lance]

Tossing chips into badly lit fires to make them well lit fires.

[Imperial528]

I've not yet done any research, but there's been so many f*cking acorns falling from the trees this year that the lawn is dying from it. So I've been meaning to research if the acorn's metabolism is dependent on the acidity of its contents (which is likely) so that I can determine a good base to use to neutralize the acid of the acorn (since that is what kills grass), also killing the acorns (so they don't grow into saplings that choke out the grass) and either turns the acorn to mush, speeds up its decay, or attracts squirrels to it (since dead acorns sitting in the topsoil can also make it hard for the grass.)

If I get a working product, I plan to patent it, and possibly sell it.

[Broomstick]

More likely than acids is tannins - acorns contain enormous amounts of tannins, so much so that oak trees were historically used as a source of chemicals for tanning hides. Tannins basically fuck up proteins. Enough of them might be leaching from the acorns that they're killing your lawn.

Rake the acorns up and dispose of them. Also rake up oak leaves, bark, branches, etc. as all parts of an oak contain tannins which are released with decay. They're water soluble, so it's the rain that's leading to it killing your grass. Neither acid nor base will neutralize the tannins. Speeding up the decay will only speed up the release of tannins, which will just kill your grass faster.

The good news is that tannins do naturally break down on their own. Clear up under the oak and a little time will cure the problem.

[mr friendly guy]

Having finally started proper chemistry studies at university, while watching "Breaking Bad" and suffering from severe stomach acid, I was curious as to whether any chemistry majors could give some interesting or useful examples of applying chemistry for day to day life.
(For example, I researched foods that are bases to help with my stomach acid [coffee, milk, apples, water, bananas. And antiacid pills. None of which are available at 3AM).

So, give examples of your chemistry use in everyday life for fun and/or profit!

Why don't you see a doctor if you have reflux problems (I take it thats what you mean by acid). They might prescribe some proton pump inhibitor, and if you need a quick fix go for the old "pink lady" (a lignocaine / mylanta suspension).

As to the answer to your other question about chemistry use in everday life, I heard that coca cola because its a weak acid can be used to clean things like old coins etc (if you are a collector I suppose).

[Raxmei]

Bleach is an oxidizer. Don't use it to clean iron.

[lance]

Crushing pop bottles before putting the cap back on keeps it from going flat.
Should be able to make hot/cold packs fairly cheaply.

[Alyrium Denryle]

More likely than acids is tannins - acorns contain enormous amounts of tannins, so much so that oak trees were historically used as a source of chemicals for tanning hides. Tannins basically fuck up proteins

Tannins ARE acids. Tannic Acids



Other than that, I really should not be in this thread because I use chemistry all the time... my daily life is SCIENCE... That said

I use salt solutions to treat the symptoms of renal problems in frogs in my colony, deal with nutrition in my frogs, inject them with hormones and dopamine agonists to get them to breed, treat them with anti-biotics and anti-fungals as necessary... and when needed, use some rather interesting and surprisingly common neurotoxins to euthanize them.

Oh then the formalin, dont forget the formalin.

Discovery Fun Fact: A drop of oragel placed on a frogs head will literally numb it to death.

[adam_grif]

I dunno about chemistry, but last year when my parents were trying to get their old digital camera working, they asked me to take a look at it. I opened up the battery slot and saw that they were in the wrong way around, so I shouted "REVERSE THE POLARITY!" and put them in the right way. They looked at me funny.